Sector: Technology/Medical/ Health
Principals: Keeley McCormick, Devon Carmichael, Joshua Latimer, Samantha Sperling, Zoe Crookshank
Year launched: 2023
Unique selling proposition: Ratcheting down the stress and discomfort associated with gynecological exams.
Strategy: Redesigning a medical diagnostic tool, the vaginal speculum, which has not been substantially changed since its invention in 1869.
Website: revynmedtech.com
In 2023, five University of Victoria engineering students had an assignment: Find a medical device that could be improved. After one team member witnessed an emergency medical procedure, they were “blown away” by the incident, recalls Keeley McCormick, one of the five students who have formed Revyn Medical Technologies.
The target? The torturous-looking vaginal speculum, invented over 150 years ago to widen vaginal walls and allow doctors to conduct gynecological exams. To develop the new, as-yet-unnamed, medical implement, the team interviewed over 600 patients in B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan, says McCormick, Revyn’s CEO. Of the 600-plus, 42 per cent delay or avoid care because of speculum angst, 87 per cent experience pain and 79 per cent report distress.
“A lot of doctors are also patients and they don’t like it themselves,” says McCormick. “But they say, ‘It’s the best we’ve got, so we’ll make it work.’ ”
There are different-sized speculums and modifications that can be made to the stainless steel or plastic instrument first used in the U.S. When thinking about the redesign, a priority for the engineers was to listen to patients so that the product addressed their needs.
So, McCormick and her classmates chose flexible silicone material for one part, which softens sharp edges and quells temperature shock. There are no jarring sound effects. The handle is stainless steel. And the whole device offers 360-degree coverage and can be sterilized. Looking like a slimmed-down blow-dryer, the implement is at the prototype stage.
Further testing, beyond bench top, is necessary for the item to qualify for Health Canada and U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval. Testing on humans could happen by early 2026, McCormick says.
The Revyn team has won numerous pitch and entrepreneurship awards, including a $70,000 prize in 2024 that will help push the unlicensed product forward into Canadian and U.S. markets.
“We’d really love to get this into training facilities,” McCormick says.
