The most common cause of newborn and infant death world-wide is respiratory distress. But treatment is not afforable or even possible without electricity in many countries.
We’ve created the Vayu-bCPAP (bubble CPAP), an affordable, ultra-low cost device that doesn’t require electricity.
After 4 ½ years of engineering refinements and 8 versions, the final commercial design of the oxygen blender (the key component of the bCPAP) has been completed.
With a final injection molding complete, we will now begin FDA tests and plan ahead to full-scale commercial distribution next year.
The functionality of the bCPAP bundle is comparable to a Fisher Paykel device (retail up to $12,000). But at less than .05% the price point (about $50), it is affordable to lower and middle-income countries.
We’ve saved hundreds of lives so far in early field trials in Tanzania! Pediatricians and Neonatologists who have been using the devices have been unanimously enthusiastic about expanding usage.
In the next two months we hope to start several new field trials in Kenya and India including a program to install our devices into 957 state ambulances in the state of Maharashtra.
Simply distributing devices like the bubble CPAP and uterine balloon to countries in need is not sufficient. Local doctors and administrators must also be trained in order for adoption to spread.
Dr. Burke has been leading our team across the globe to engage physicians and train on both the uterine balloon and bubble CPAP devices. Now we’ll be supplementing that in-person training with technology to reach more people and stay connected.
We’ve partnered with Grant Spark to develop a mobile app to help remotely train doctors and quickly get them answers to common problems. The app will also allow us to measure adoption and usage of our devices.
The first version of the mobile app is currently being beta-tested while our team in Boston is busy filming the training videos. We expect to run a pilot of the mobile app in India before the end of the year.
