The Institute for Pediatric Innovation is working with hospitals in California and Cleveland to develop an endotracheal tube sized for neonatal and premature infants and a vein illuminator to allow doctors to find their tiny blood vessels.
The Cambridge, Mass.-based non-profit said it’s working with California’s Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford on a new pediatric endotracheal tube optimized for neonatal care and with University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital of Cleveland on a vein transilluminator designed to reduce the number of needle sticks required to locate a vein.
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IPI, which will manage the development of the devices, said the work is being funded by a $200,000 contract with a medical device company, according to a press release. The hospitals will provide end-user input on the design of the devices, which are expected to be ready for the marketplace by the fourth quarter, after the technology has been acquired by a medical device company.
The devices were selected as priorities for development after the institute and its consortium of pediatric hospitals ran an in-depth needs analysis at children’s hospitals across the country. That process identified devices designed for adults that are too large or otherwise unsuited for use with infants.
The new endotracheal tube addresses the high level of intubations in NICUs, where about 90 percent of patients require respiratory assistance. Neonatal infants, especially those born prematurely, have minute and fragile airways that can easily be damaged by an adult-size endotracheal tube.
The vein illuminator addresses a similar problem of scale: The tiny size of veins in newborn and premature infants, which makes them difficult to locate when doctors or nurses need to introduce IV needles or perform other injections. The device will allow medical professionals to “see” the blood vessels in premature infants, according to the press release.
