Founder Bob Foster on why he started Rampart

In this video, Rampart founder Bob Foster MD, FACC, FSCAI discusses how the effects of wearing lead vests in the cath lab led to musculoskeletal injuries which prevented him from not only doing his job, but other activities as well. Now working comfortably behind the protection of the Rampart units, Dr. Foster has been able to get back to taking care of patients, better shielded from radiation exposure and without the daily and long-term burden of wearing lead.

“My name is Bob Foster. I'm an interventional cardiologist and have been practicing interventional cardiology for the last 25 years. And most of my interest has been in not only coronary work, but peripheral artery disease, and I spent a large amount of time in the cath labs. And with that, exposed my body and my teams to an enormous amount of radiation- and just time physically in the lead apron which created a large amount of weight and ultimately damaged my body. When I was at the peak of my career, which was in my mid-forties, is when I started having some severe back issues to the point that I was rupturing discs.

And my first disc rupture required urgent surgery. Four years later, my second disc rupture, again. I was right at 50 years old and at the peak of my career. That was a much more devastating injury. My right leg was paralyzed. I was not able to walk for almost a month and was out of the cath lab for over a year.

And there just was not a viable solution there to allow me to get back into the lab without the weight on my back and to have the free mobility that I need to do the complex procedures that I do. During that period that I was not able to walk and not able to work, I started looking for solutions- and how can I get back into the lab?

Is there a way? And is there a possibility that I'd be able to get back and do the things that I really love to do? And that's to take care of patients and do procedural work and enjoy the people in the cath lab that I've worked with for so many years. And that led me to not only search for the solution, but if there wasn't one to work to invent a solution.

First model went into first use in 2019. And now, several years later, I have been able to use the Rampart every day. And it's got me back to doing my work with with no limitations, which has been life changing for me- to be able to get back to doing exactly what I love to do.

The Rampart is a simple solution. It's basically placing a barrier between you and the radiation source. And, used in conjunction with below the table leaded drapes, it gives you total body protection from the top of your head to your shins. And protecting all those vital organs is very important to me.

And when you're in there seven, eight, nine, ten hours- by the end of day you're totally fatigued, especially when you've been wearing the lead apron for day in and day out. So to be able to take that weight off, it's just one more pressure that you can relieve your body of while you have to stay at the peak of your performance all day long, because mistakes are not allowed.

One thing that I've really appreciated about Rampart is that it has a very small footprint in your lab; that it's not a big device that overwhelms your lab. It's very versatile so that you can have multiple access points in multiple kinds of procedures. And yet it's very easy to move throughout your lab, and to move room to room if needed.

It protects the team. It is a barrier. And the name "Rampart" actually comes from a medieval term, that allows the knight to take off his armor and to create a barrier for the whole community. Because they realized that the knight in armor couldn't move like he needed to move around to do the things that he needed to do to fight the good fight.

And because of that, it was better to have a rampart- to have a barrier. And that way the entire community was protected. And that's what the Rampart does. It creates a safe area for the community to function so that we can all battle the diseases that we battle; that keeps on attacking people. And it allows us to go in there and freely and comfortably help these people get better.

I'm very excited about this next generation of operators who are going to be able to work in a different environment than I worked in- who may be even attracted to the job that we have. It's taking care of patients in an environment, that really up until now has been very hostile both from an orthopedic and a radiation standpoint. If we can work together to get that radiation exposure down to zero. . . if we can work together to take the lead aprons off the back, to make it a comfortable environment for all of this next generation, then I think they're going to have a very long career.

And at the end of that, they're going to be able to really enjoy retirement, enjoy their families, enjoy traveling, enjoy their grandchildren. And I think that's what change we can make. The time is now. We can't wait any longer. We've waited 100 years with these lead aprons. And now it's time to take them off. Now it's time to Shed The Lead.”