In the late 1980’s I was witnessing the deterioration and loss of two dear friends from AIDS. Around the same time, I saw a doctor give an interview regarding needlestick injuries claiming engineers do not care about the safety of healthcare workers. I was moved to action, I visited my local pharmacy to pick up traditional syringes, acquired a grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and have been on a relentless fight to provide clinicians with the safe needle products they need to give them a safe work environment. Eighty percent of America’s leading hospitals now use automated retraction, which is the only safety-engineered technology that effectively reduces needlestick injuries. Unfortunately, in many facilities nurses still blame themselves for needlesticks that occur with poorly engineered devices. There is a simple explanation of why RTI out-designed and out performed the world’s largest and oldest syringe manufacturers. They were designing add-on safety attachments to protect their existing manufacturing equipment, while we, worked with clinicians across the nation to develop a safety product from scratch to truly protect America’s dedicated healthcare workers.

Thanks to the 29 years of dedication of some 150 employees in the small town of Little Elm, Texas, RTI is now the world leader in the design and manufacture of effective safety needle products. However, our job is not done until every clinician can go to the cabinet or drawer and grab any product confidently assured that it is designed with safety first and the goal that they will be able to work their entire career without experiencing a single needlestick.