"Sometimes people think the best inventions are the most complicated ones, but my strategy is to simplify things, not complicate them," said Mitchell Dombrowski, MD, professor and associate chair of obstetrics and gynecology.

His medical degree makes him a physician, but his creative mind makes him an inventor. He graduated from medical school in 1979 and in 1984 he filed his first patent. It was for a fetal blood sampling instrument which he developed and conceived during his training as a high-risk perinatologist. He has continued creating medical devices and currently owns the patents on 12 devices, with several more in the works.

In the 1980s when the AIDS epidemic began, Dr. Dombrowski found a way to protect both patients and healthcare workers from dangerous needlestick injuries. He devised a self-capping needle, which allows a doctor or nurse to safely remove an IV needle in one easy motion, with improved safety precautions. This device, being marketed as "Angel Wings," won a national award for design excellence and is now used in the United States and other countries around the world.

Dr. Dombrowski has generated his ideas in a number of different places. The safety IV needle idea came to him while he was sick with a fever. Some ideas crop up as he’s leaving patient rooms. Still another idea came to him in the research laboratory. "I was working on a project one day and I was using this ultra-accurate device to measure fluid volume. I found it peculiar that in the lab, we use very precise syringes, but with patients, that’s not so. The doctor or nurse fills the fluid to the appropriate measuring line, but it’s not a perfectly precise exercise."

With that in mind, he promptly created a device to administer medications with greater accuracy and reduce the incidence of dosage errors. It is a syringe contained in a special chamber which holds the medication. On the outside of the chamber is a digital read-out which measures the exact amount of fluid to be injected. Although the device can be used for nearly any substance, it is especially useful for people who self-administer medications such as insulin. This invention was patented to Dr. Dombrowski and his partner Dr. Robert Welch in 1990. In 1998, WSU licensed this patent to a prominent pharmaceutical company.

"I guess I would say I’m pretty mechanically inclined," said Dr. Dombrowski. "If something doesn’t work right, I think about ways to improve it. To be honest, though, if you just think simply about how to make it better, you’re halfway there. The most important thing is the awareness that it could be better and there must be a better way."

Since his first invention in 1984, Dr. Dombrowski has patented a better way to make blood sampling instruments, cut-resistant surgical gloves, self-capping needles, needle and catheter assemblies, reagent test strips, amniocentesis tools, and medication dispensing systems. Although he has had hundreds of other ideas, he says it’s important to be selective about which ones to pursue.

Although Dr. Dombrowski’s ideas utilize his engineering skills, don’t look for him to switch careers anytime soon. "Since I was four years old, I knew I wanted to practice medicine," he says. "I really enjoy the inventive and creative aspects of my job. Caring for patients really helps you understand where the improvements are needed, so I don’t think medicine and engineering can be separated. I think you have to know the work to know what improvements are necessary."