Patent ID: 8009014

Claim:
A safety system for use with a medical device comprising: a medical device operating element; and a safety mechanism operably coupled to said medical device operating element for preventing erroneous actuation of said medical device operating element by requiring user-specific authorization data; wherein said safety mechanism comprises: an identification device for receiving user-specific identification data; wherein the identification device stores user-specific authorization data having associated user-specific identification data, correlates received user-specific identification data with said stored user-specific authorization data having user-specific identification data, and sends said user-specific authorization data to a securing mechanism upon selected correlation of said received and stored user-specific identification data; and said securing mechanism providing a plurality of securing levels, wherein each of said plurality of securing levels is releasable in response to receiving user-specific authorization data associated with one or more of said plurality of securing levels, release of said one or more of said securing levels providing a secure level of operation of said medical device operating element.