SBIR Phase II: Electric Blower-Based Emergency Mask Ventilator for Simple Ventilation and Monitoring During Patient Distress and Transport

Award ID: 2151557

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is simplifying a difficult and dangerous medical intervention, that is performed millions of times a year in the United States, with a portable and ergonomic device that enables rescuers to increase the safety for every patient in an emergency that requires ventilation assistance. The resulting device will decrease the time necessary to stabilize a patient during situations where every second is crucial to the patients health. The device will also enable responders to accomplish their jobs more effectively and safely. The resulting technology seeks not only to increase safety for patients and increase efficiency of medical responders, but it seeks to do so in a cost-effective manner. A main focus of this research is to develop a solution applies in all emergency situations and for every patient requiring rescue ventilation. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will develop and test a device that will calculate and measure the tidal volume delivered during rescue ventilation and provide instant feedback to the responder to evaluate the status of the patients respiratory system. The device will deliver breaths using tightly controlled pressure levels and respiration rates to avoid injuring the patient while also providing optimized ventilation. It will provide these features in a small, ergonomic, portable form-factor that can easily be used ambidextrously with one hand, thereby improving the flexibility and freedom of the responder to deal with other issues. The development and customer data from Phase I of this project will be used to fully construct an operational prototype that will be suitable for FDA validation testing and clearance. By integrating such a high level of respiratory care into a portable device, the impact of such technology will be broadened to all patients that require live-saving ventilation. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Program Director: Henry Ahn