In the past few weeks, due to the global pandemic generated by COVID-19, the patient’s airway management and healthcare professionals’ safety have gotten into the spotlight. Furthermore, difficult airway intubations are the cause of approximately 35% of life-threatening respiratory events, leading to death or permanent brain damage. Since COVID-19, the medical guidelines for tracheal intubation have changed, and a heavily financed R&D race has started to find new intubation devices that protect the healthcare professional and minimizes patient exposure and contamination.
With the aim to improve this situation, Dr. Carlos Gutierrez MD, PhD, has designed a device that can be used for intubating a patient easily, also being able to treat a potential airway obstruction, and adding the possibility to connect an optical device, like an optical guide, that will go through the device to the tip, making difficult airway intubations easier than ever.
Furthermore, this device prevents the wide opening of the patient’s mouth that conventional intubation requires, therefore contributing to generate a safer environment for the healthcare professional and less potential contaminations during the intubation, among many other advantages. This innovation has been validated by eight clinical experts worldwide, who agreed on its advantages and proposed several clinical uses for the device, many of them stating that this should be a “must-have” when treating difficult airway patients or laryngotracheal stenosis. The main goal of the inventor is to license the technology to a commercial partner for its exploitation.
Institution: Hospital Universitari i Politécnic La Fe
TRL: 2-3
Protection status: Patent application
Contact: Laura Núñez / tech@viromii.com
