Public Funding for The Mobile Stroke Unit Charity

Whenever fluid is given into the body via a dripline, the dripline should be monitored to avoid air embolism or formation of blood clots that can block the tubing. This is conventionally done by hospital nurses and ambulance paramedics peering at the drip chambers. For catheter (thin tubes visible under X-rays) interventions in arteries, where continuous administration of fluids is important to keep the blood from clotting within the catheters, there is nothing suitable on the market to monitor flow. Interruption of flow, even for only a minute, can lead to blood clots that can result in severe disability or death. Doctors and paramedics of The Mobile Stroke Unit Charity, together with founders of Nvention, identified the need for a simple device that can be used on ambulances and in hospitals for operations in the brain and heart. Our invention, the IV-Buddy, automatically sounds an alarm if flow within a drip line into the body stops. The IV-Buddy has a novel sensor technology that leads to increased patient safety during infusions. With the IV-Buddy, valuable nursing time does not need to be spent repeatedly inspecting drip chambers. Infusion pumps could potentially be used, but they are expensive, cumbersome to handle, not readily available and not usable for catheter interventions. Our easy to use IV-Buddy will improve patient safety, especially in low-resource settings where infusion pumps are scarce. The IV-Buddy has other applications. Army medics were excited to learn of this new tool that saves lives while evacuating soldiers, or during mass casualty events. Other applications include home infusion and dialysis, blood donation or patient transport in hospitals and ambulances. With the IV-Buddy, fluid monitoring becomes possible in poorer countries where infusion pumps are too expensive. The IV-Buddy is innovative as: \* there is no such device on the market, \* it lowers the risk to patients by automatically alerting the clinician of a problem, \* it is simple to use, \* it can be low cost, making it widely affordable. This grant will fund technical design to incorporate product extensions requested by users after seeing our earlier prototype. We will also obtain information on and plan for the clinical trials (in the ambulance and catheter lab) needed to gain regulatory approval. The improved version of the IV-Buddy developed during this grant will be prototyped as part of the evaluation of its new features and tested in a simulated environment to evaluate its safety.

This project is industrial research to identify the best route to market for a new medical device called the IV-Buddy. We have already demonstrated in a prototype that the IV-Buddy works. It automatically sounds an alarm if flow within a drip line into the body stops. The IV-Buddy has a novel sensor technology that leads to increased patient safety during infusions. For catheter interventions in arteries, where continuous administration of fluids is important to keep the blood from clotting within the catheters, there is nothing suitable on the market to monitor flow. Interruption of flow, even for only a few minutes, leads to blood clots that can result in severe disability or death. With the IV-Buddy valuable nursing time does not need to be spent repeatedly inspecting drip chambers. For injections into a vein, infusion pumps could potentially be used. However, they are expensive, cumbersome to handle and not readily available. Our very low-cost and easy to use IV-Buddy will improve patient safety, especially in low-resource settings where infusion pumps are scarce. Doctors and paramedics of The Mobile Stroke Unit Charity, together with founders of Nvention, identified the need for a simple device that can be used on ambulances and in hospitals for operations in the brain and heart. Nvention was formed specifically to commercialise this device. We believe that the IV-Buddy has a wide range of applications. Army medics were excited to learn of this new tool that saves lives while evacuating soldiers or during mass casualty events. Other applications include home infusion and dialysis, blood donation or patient transport in hospitals and ambulances. With the low-cost IV-Buddy, fluid monitoring becomes possible in poorer countries where it is too expensive to use an infusion pump. In order to refine the IV-Buddy and strategically position Nvention on the market we need to explore its range of applications, the diverse needs of clinicians and patients as well as cost effectiveness. We will also focus on user friendliness, for example for the elderly at home, as well as environmental impact. Actual clinical use on patients is not part of this grant. The IV-Buddy is innovative as: * there is no such device on the market, * it lowers the risk to patients by automatically alerting the clinician of a problem, rather than relying on nurses noticing that fluid flow has stopped, * it is exceptionally low cost, making it widely affordable.