Women at the cutting edge: driving inclusive surgical design

26 Jan 2026 5min read

Gender bias in surgical devices impacts women surgeons, compromising both their performance and well-being. Many instruments and protective equipment have historically been designed using data based on male physical characteristics, creating systemic challenges for female practitioners. These design gaps in surgical equipment can lead to discomfort, slower procedures and even long-term health risks.

Recently, Team Consulting led an interactive workshop to understand and tackle this issue. This inspiring session at the Women at the Cutting Edge event, hosted by the Royal College of Surgeons of England in partnership with the RCSEng’s I-Hub and Women in Surgery (WinS) group, brought together surgeons to address gender bias in surgical device design.

The importance of inclusivity in surgical device design

Many surgical devices are designed using data from male hand sizes and strength profiles, creating inequalities that disproportionately affect women surgeons. Studies in laparoscopic and endoscopic surgery show that device size, weight and proportions can significantly impact performance and ergonomic strain for those with smaller glove sizes, regardless of dexterity levels.

There are also examples of bias having severe health impacts, for example in the case of lead protection garments to protect clinicians from radiation exposure. There is evidence that many standard vests fail to adequately protect breast tissue, contributing to 2.9x greater breast cancer incidence among female orthopaedic surgeons compared to the general female population.

Our interactive workshop with the RCSEng’s WinS group explored:

Evidence of gender bias in surgical devices
Gender bias effects on surgical performance and surgeon health
Team Consulting’s approach to inclusive surgical device development
A collaborative brainstorm on future solutions

The workshop emphasised the importance of early engagement with clinical experts, inclusive research methods, and the use of anthropometric data that represents a diverse user base when defining surgical device specifications.

Insights on surgical device usability from women surgeons

An interactive survey session with surgeons in the workshop revealed results that mirrored the academic evidence, demonstrating clear gaps affecting women surgeons:

100% of participants (around 20 surgeons) reported experience using surgical devices that they felt were not well-suited to them.
Participants reported that the consequences of this include fatigue (50%), pain and discomfort (65%) and slowed or impaired performance (65%).
Root causes cited were mostly related to size and shape, but also included device weight, grip, proportions and posture.

Results from interactive poll with 20 women surgeons

These responses perfectly illustrated how important it is to consider all these different factors systematically when designing a device that is inclusive and effective for people with different hand sizes and strengths. It’s not just about the size, it’s the weight, and it’s the proportions as well as the context of use.
Lara Zaki, Senior FEI Strategy and Innovation Consultant, Team Consulting

Equipment used during surgery

When asked “what kind of instrument or procedure did you experience this [unsuited equipment] with?”, attendees gave a wide range of answers, showcasing the breadth of the problem – from laparoscopic tools and staplers to basic equipment like gloves and scalpels.

How can developers and surgeons come together?

We asked the surgeons how they handle these situations when a piece of equipment is not well-suited to them. Participants reported the following responses to these situations:

Changing their technique (45%)
Switching to a new instrument (25%)
Not changing anything (50%)
Only one person reported usability issues internally and no one contacted a device manufacturer in response to challenges.

Unfortunately, as expected, this revealed a culture in which women surgeons have to accept these challenges. Many surgeons expressed that there is a pervasive narrative in their working environments that any issues they may have with the equipment is their own responsibility to change their technique, as opposed to an acknowledgement that the devices themselves are not sufficiently inclusive.

Changing technique presents a significant burden, and as seen from the evidence, there is a systemic difference in usability for people of different glove sizes, demonstrating that the problem does not lie with the surgeons themselves.
Lara Zaki, Senior FEI Strategy and Innovation Consultant, Team Consulting

Team’s workshop aimed to empower participating surgeons to fight these perceptions and raise awareness on gender bias within surgical devices, as well as to discuss practical solutions to overcome this.

Most attendees had never been involved in device R&D, but many expressed interest in joining our surgical network to contribute their insights and experiences to inform surgical device innovation and development. This is a crucial step toward ensuring future devices are ergonomic, inclusive and optimised for all clinicians.

The enthusiasm and engagement displayed during the workshop was inspiring. It reinforced the urgent need for collaboration between designers, human factors specialists, engineers and surgeons to eliminate gender bias in surgical devices.

At Team, we have worked directly with surgeons on a range of impactful projects, including a novel device to improve accuracy in complex breast surgery procedures. Collaboration between designers and clinicians was essential and incorporating the voices of women surgeons helps designers challenge data gaps to create inclusive, usable designs.

Our teams are acutely aware of the biases in surgical devices, helping us create tools that are actively designed for flexible, effective and ergonomic use by surgeons with different hand sizes.

We are excited to continue integrating the insights of more women surgeons in our device development programs, as we challenge how things are done currently with new innovations that tackle the gender data gap.
Lara Zaki, Senior FEI Strategy and Innovation Consultant, Team Consulting