Topic: Off the Wall Speculation
Previously on ProgrammersHeaven.
Re: As A Laughing Place is on life support...
By: Portuno_Diamo on October 08, 2006 at 5:02:24 PM
Read 1 times (Updated daily).
: I thought this appropriate.
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: First, a bit of nostalgia for the old time information. Hallelujah.
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: http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:qq9_adxBfNwJ:sec.edgar-online.com/2001/04/02/0001015402-01-000902/Section16.asp+alung+terry+washburn&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1
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: Always segment an individual's work with the biggest in his ranking.
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: Then wonder why he "left". Was it because he got kicked out or is that a "spin"?
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: Because SOMEbody has come into some monies.
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: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct/show/NCT00288964;jsessionid=14C624D69B73FB8FC78E069D3D134691?order=1
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: We will come across situations in life where we could have used something like this.
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Something in here?
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/business/s_186001.html
A fresh breath of air
By Dave Copeland
PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, March 24, 2004
The technology for treating lung patients has been in use for more than 50 years in hospitals. Of the one million people placed on a ventilator machine each year, 10 percent develop pneumonia, and 80 percent need to be sedated to allow for insertion of the ventilator tube into their breathing canals.
Patients can't eat or talk when on a ventilator. And of the patients who develop pneumonia, 50 percent die.
But for its purpose, and for the time being, it's the best technology available.
A start-up company on the South Side is working to change that.
ALung Technologies Inc. is developing a new technology -- esstenially an artificial lung -- that its founders hope will replace the ventilator, which is so intrusive some patients sign legal documents that essentially say they would rather die than be ventilated.
"The bottom line advantage is it provides lung support while allowing your lung to rest and heal. A ventilator takes a lung that's already damaged and makes it work harder," said Dr. William Federspiel, a co-founder of ALung and director of the University of Pittsburgh's artificial lung research laboratory. "The analogy we always use is that if you break your leg, the doctor doesn't tell you to go out and start immediately exercising."
Federspiel, an engineer, connected with Dr. Brack G. Hattler in the mid-1990s and began working on a prototypes of the artificial lung. Hattler had some early patents from work on trying to develop an alternative to ventilation in the 1980s.
Hattler said he began working on prototypes back in the 1980s. All of the time since then, he said, has been spent improving the product and getting it ready for use in humans.
"We essentially made the devices in our own garages. We tested them in animals and, low and behold, the concept worked -- but not very efficiently," Hattler said. "What we showed at that time is that the concept was correct, but it wasn't at a level where it would be significant for patients."
Working together, Hattler and Federspiel developed what has become known as the Hattler Catheter. Inserted into a major artery through the upper thigh, the catheter feeds oxygen to the heart and takes carbon dioxide away, allowing an injured or damaged lung to heal.
In addition to improving patient comfort, the Hattler Catheter has some distinct advantages: patients are usually on mechanical ventilation for an average of 11 days at an average cost of $53,885, while the doctors expect the average patient on the catheter to be on the device for six days, at a cost of $24,493.
With about one million patients requiring ventilation each year in the United States, the two doctors recruited Nicholas Kuhn as chief executive and president of ALung to help raise capital and tap into an estimated $3 billion market.
"We've been pretty successful in positioning the company as a spin-out of the university," Federspiel said. "It's an interesting story about how it often takes a couple of different personalities with different skill sets to get a product off the ground."
In December, ALung moved into a new office in the Terminal Building on the South Side. The company has grown from two employees to 10, and expects to have 27 employees by next year.
"The university has no mechanism for taking technology and making it a reality where it would be available to patients, and that's really where it needs to be," Hattler added. "It's to the credit of the university that they have seen the necessity of allowing these ideas to be spun out and developed by industry. Hopefully, we'll be part of the Pittsburgh success story."
Kuhn has helped to raise close to $4 million to date. ALung expects to need $10 million to $12 million more to complete human trials, which are scheduled to begin this year. The company could gain regulatory approval and move the Hattler Catheter to market as early as 2006.
Kuhn also has helped the company tap into another potential market. He has been working with the Department of Defense to develop military applications. A soldier injured in a chemical attack, for example, could be placed on the catheter until his lungs had healed.
"If we had had this product ready before the last war, the army probably would have wanted to order a significant number of catheters," Kuhn said. "A soldier shot in the chest when he's wearing a flak jacket often gets a bruise on his lungs, which can cause fluid to build up. The catheter could be used in a situation like that."
"We think we can save hundreds of thousands of lives a year with this," Hattler said. "To be able to do that -- without even thinking about a company -- is very exciting."
Dave Copeland can be reached.
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Happy hunting all.
