Board-Certified Neurosurgeon · Barrow Neurological Institute · Medical Advisor, Fortega Medical
Dr. Murphy is a neurosurgeon who recognized that physicians working daily under fluoroscopy had no validated options to protect their head, neck, or eyes from radiation — and decided to change that.
Dr. Rory Murphy has spent his career at the intersection of clinical excellence and medical innovation. As a neurosurgeon at Barrow Neurological Institute, he performs complex spinal and cranial procedures under fluoroscopic imaging every week.
But that career led him to a quiet realization: the physicians doing the work were absorbing radiation to areas of their bodies with no protection — and it had been passively accepted for decades.
That recognition set in motion a mission that became Fortega Medical. Not a company born in a boardroom. A company built from an operating room.
A few years ago, while in Sweden with Intelligent Implants, Ltd., Dr. Murphy encountered something he'd never seen before: a lightweight, lead-free, clinically validated textile that reduced radiation to the head and neck by up to 90%.
It wasn't a prototype. Surgeons across Europe were wearing it daily — comfortably enough that they forgot it was there. When he got home, his wife asked how he protects his head in the OR. "We don't have any good options in the U.S."
On the flight home, he reviewed the data. Surgeons absorb 4.4 mSv to the head after just 20 procedures — even with standard shielding in place. The gap was real, and no one was closing it.
Surgeons working with fluoroscopy accumulate radiation throughout their careers. The standard lead apron was designed for the torso — but for most U.S. physicians, the head, thyroid, and eyes have had no validated protection option. Until now.
Surgeons have spent decades investing in patient safety.
Now it's time we invest in physician protection with the same urgency.
When Dr. Murphy returned from Sweden, he called JP Hartigan — an entrepreneur with a track record of bringing breakthrough products to industries resistant to change.
The two shared the same instinct: something that was already protecting surgeons across Europe had no presence in U.S. operating rooms — not in workflows, not in systems, not in the conversation.
In January, running across the Golden Gate Bridge, they put a plan together. They mapped out a plan to bring that protection to U.S. physicians. The mission: bring clinically validated radiation protection to neurosurgeons, orthopedic surgeons, and pain management doctors — and make it genuinely workable in an OR environment.
That scope has since grown. Fortega is now building partnerships across a broader ecosystem — specialized eye protection for fluoroscopy environments, nutraceutical approaches that support the body's response to occupational radiation, and solutions designed to protect everyone in the room: not just the primary surgeon, but the nurses, techs, and staff absorbing scatter radiation alongside them every day.
Fortega is built through relationships with physicians. Every surgeon who wears Fortega protection joins a growing conversation about occupational radiation safety in medicine.
Dr. Murphy's founding story resonated with physicians across specialties — hundreds of reactions and dozens of comments — and a conversation that's still growing.
Interested in Fortega's radiation protection system? Reach out to Dr. Murphy or JP Hartigan directly.
Contact / Text Us Directly →Associate Professor of Neurosurgery at Barrow Neurological Institute — one of the world's leading neurological centers — with active clinical, research, and teaching roles.
Medical degree from University College Cork. Neurosurgery residency at Washington University in St. Louis. Fellowship in Functional Neurosurgery at UCSF.
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