Any sober driver knows you can see better in dark places with your headlights on. Akron based LifeSaving Medical Solutions is applying the same principle to tricky emergency and surgical intubations. And their device was new-tech enough to land on a 2009 episode of NBC's ER.
Developed by physician Noam Gavriely and manufactured in Israel in response to the sometimes difficult intubations of wounded military personnel, ETView's Tracheoscopic Ventilation Tube incorporates a video camera and lighted tip to allow medical personnel to see, on any connected monitor, the pathway the device is traveling -- making certain the tube arrives in the appropriate place. Once ETView is in place, the system allows ongoing visual monitoring of the airway, which, it turns out, is very important.
Ventilator Associated Pneumonia (VAP) can occur when excess excretions build up in airways. In addition to making patients very ill, VAP creates millions of dollars each year in additional hospital costs. ETView's ongoing airway visualization allows hospital staff to determine when removal of secretions is needed to avoid this complication.
LifeSaving Medical Solutions CEO, Eric Cooper, says growth of the company, since it's founding in 2009 has been slow -- about 2 percent per year -- as the sales force works its way through hospital purchasing committees. But several current studies -- and the fact that the company has been able to reduce the core cost of the device by nearly 50 percent -- should begin to spur growth in the near future.
"We're the only one with this technology," Cooper says, "and several doctors want to get involved with us and champion its use."
Source: Eric Cooper, LifeSaving Medical Solutions
Writer: Dana Griffith