Patricia Buehler Wins Pitch Contest With Device Inspired by Ancient Egypt

Dr. Patricia Buehler, wife of former Oregon state lawmaker and gubernatorial candidate Knute Buehler, won a pitch contest for a device that draws on an ancient Egyptian method to remove excess skin from the eyelid.

As people age, excess skin on the upper eyelid can impair peripheral vision and make a person appear old and tired. Removal of the skin is called blepharoplasty, or eyelid lift. The procedure costs about $4,000 and results in weeks of swelling and bruising, Patricia Buehler said in a statement announcing her victory in the Winning Pitch Challenge hosted by Eyecelerator in San Diego.

Buehler sought a less invasive way to perform blepharoplasty and looked to ancient Egypt, where healers would remove excess eyelid tissue by compressing it between two small twigs, depriving the excess tissue of blood supply and causing it to fall off.

The result was a device called Ziplyft, which Buehler has patented. Surgeons do more than 500,000 blepharoplasty operations every year, Buehler said. Ziplyft reduces procedure time, can be done without sedation, and minimizes post-operative bruising and swelling, Buehler said.

It’s a return to the public eye (sorry) for a couple that was prominent in Oregon politics not so long ago.

Knute Buehler twice lost statewide races against Kate Brown—first for secretary of state in 2012, then for Oregon governor in 2018. He also sought a GOP nomination for Congress in 2020, losing to eventual U.S. Rep. Cliff Bentz (R-Ore.), and left the Republican Party a year later over its embrace of stolen-election conspiracies.

The Buehlers are founders of OSHERU, the Bend company that makes the Ziplyft.