The Herbert screw improved the operative treatment of scaphoid fractures through compression.

“it's evolved a little historically we treated all of these non-operatively and then there was a period uh when actually an Australian fellow named Herbert came up with a really ingenious screw that was had two sets of threads on it and they were different pitch so when you'd screw it down the middle of the bone and turn it and when it engaged both bones it would actually compress them together because they were different pitch and that was called the Herbert's crew and that was a game changer for us to be able to treat especially athletes and show folks where this bone is and where you access it operatively”