A National Institutes of Health (NIH) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant will help expand neonatal research by Indianapolis-based SonarMed and developed  by George R. Wodicka, professor at Purdue University and head of the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering. It was licensed through the Purdue Research Foundation’s Office of Technology Commercialization.

The grant totals approximately $450,000 over two years and is specifically intended for adapting the SonarMed Airway Monitoring System (AMS) for use in neonatal patients. SonarMed is the medical device developer behind the SonarMed AMS.

"The NIH has been a strong supporter of the technology,” says SonarMed President and CEO Andrew Cothrel. “We’re excited to have the opportunity to bring the technology to the neonatal market, where the clinical needs are the greatest.”

SonarMed Co-founder and CTO Jeffrey Mansfield says when he first began this project at Purdue University in the early '90s, the focus was on the neonatal patient. "While the use of breathing tubes can result in complications for any patient, the risks are magnified for the neonatal patient,” says Mansfield. “I am gratified that the NIH also sees this critical clinical need.”

The SonarMed AMS uses acoustic technology to continuously monitor breathing tubes. The AMS may be used to assist clinicians in preventing and detecting conditions that can harm the patient, such as movement of the breathing tube, which can result in ventilation failure or lung damage, and obstruction of the breathing tube, which can deprive the patient of needed oxygen.

Compared with the conventional standards of care and available patient information, having this type of adjunctive information about the breathing tube provides clinicians with a more immediate and complete picture of the patient's respiratory support status. This is especially critical for neonatal patients because slight movements of the breathing tube in their small, short tracheas can lead to potentially serious complications.

"The technology behind the SonarMed AMS is another example of an important discovery from Purdue University moving through the commercialization process and to the public,” says Joseph B. Hornett, senior vice president, treasurer and COO of the Purdue Research Foundation.