How is your business helping to solve the health, social, or economic challenges created by COVID19?
Most all patients receiving ventilation are intubated with an endotracheal or tracheostomy tube. Endotracheal tubes use an inflated cuff to form a positive pressure seal to ventilate and keep the lungs clean, but the cuffs don’t work well. Problems include infection, tissue damage, perfusion loss, and insufficient sealing. Higher cuff pressures can reduce foreign body intrusion and improve sealing, lower pressures cause less damage and perfusion loss. Neither task is done well at any individual pressure since improving one hurts the other. Plus, current pressure setting-maintaining equipment is expensive and inaccurate. Worst of all, this intimate, time-consuming process greatly raises viral exposure risks for caregivers and forces a full gown-up/down (and PPE usage) with an oversight partner just for one pressure check.Cykyl’s Cuff Corrector improves all four tracheal tube cuff pressurization problems: 1. A “Corrected” cuff’s pressure is maintained passively and automatic, needing only a few pumps a week, operating as reliably as springs; 2. A "Corrected” cuff keeps a constant pressure and is compliant when the body moves;3. Compliance improves seal integrity even with lower pressure, reducing tissue harm; 4.Constant low pressure better matches cuff to body surfaces, improving sealing.
Does your business contribute most to recovery, response, or resilience?
Response - we're responding directly to issues caused or exacerbated by the COVID-19 outbreak.
What is the stage of your product development?
I have a prototype or a simple version I can show my customers
What strengths does your team bring? Include skills and personal experience with the problem.
Dan Klotzer is a seasoned technology R&D entrepreneur/IP professional/scientific frontier extender with a decades long track record of breakthrough technology innovations. St. Marys Spring Co/Adam Bailey (Pres) is/are manufacturing planning/execution experts, and his daughter is a working respiratory therapist on the crisis front line. Dr. Charles Bowen is a 28 year practicing anesthesiologist who regularly intubates patients, and is CMO for Wings Of Hope, as well as an experienced med device entrepreneur. Dr. Jeff Ma (Mech. Eng. professor at SLU) is a (FE) simulation studies and manufacturing processes expert who worked for NASA previously. Dr. Tim Osswald is a renowned lab director of the polymer engineering center at U Wisc. Madison and esteemed authority on all things material, especially if pliant or a polymer.Brain Hayes is a talented networker/communications facilitator.Joe von Kaenel has a wealth of experience in securities law, investment advising, & startups
What countries do you operate in?
United States, Europe (patent filings only), India (patent filings only)
Is your company headquartered in a US "Opportunity Zone"?
No
