The ieCrowd announced plans to commercialize a new class of intelligent supplemental oxygen devices. Once commercialized the devices will integrate new technologies for delivering demand-driven and efficient oxygen flow to people living with chronic lung diseases.
ieCrowd acquired the exclusive license for the innovation’s underlying technology from University of California, San Diego, where the first prototype had been developed to address significant inefficiencies in supplemental oxygen devices on the market today. The technology is being commercialized by Breathing Technologies Inc. (BTI), a new subsidiary company formed by ieCrowd.
"Existing oxygen delivery devices make it challenging to accurately address an individual patient’s need for oxygen in real time," said Stephen Abbott, ieCrowd’s Chief Discovery Officer.
A human clinical trial of the device was just completed at the Pulmonary Rehabilitation Clinic at UC San Diego Medical Center. Publication of the results from the trial are pending. Funding for the trial was provided by the University of California Proof of Concept Program.
Targeted to become the market’s first smart, adaptive oxygen delivery system, the device uses a patient’s real-time oxygen requirements, based on sensor feedback and computer algorithms, to establish a user’s oxygen demand.
The innovation is being developed to meet a patient’s oxygen requirements based on changing demands throughout the day. Current systems deliver oxygen based on regulator presets and patient adjustments, often creating a burden to the patient, shorter tank lifecycles, limited mobility ranges, and imprecise therapy.
The technology’s development also includes plans to enable communication to mobile devices and the cloud for the monitoring of patient data generated by the device. The sharing of patient-generated data with an individual’s medical providers and others involved in treatment means the device could become an important element of the growing ecosystem of Internet of Things (IoT)-connected medical devices.
The device’s underlying technology was developed on the UC San Diego campus by David Lisher and co-inventor Dr. Steve Roberts, PhD EE. Lisher had been diagnosed with COPD and was seeking ways to expand mobility and quality of life that had been restricted by his limited lung capacity. Lisher, who has 30-40 percent lung capacity, uses a prototype daily that enables him to maintain an active lifestyle which includes golf and working on his ranch.
"We are proud to have a premier research institution like UC San Diego become an Innovation Partner of ieCrowd," said Amro Albanna, founding chairman and CEO of ieCrowd. "This is another great example of how working together we can transform promising discoveries into solutions that have significant potential to benefit the world."