One-line solution summary:
Infection control breathing tube proven to reduce ventilation time, antibiotic use, respiratory labor, pneumonia, and mortality.
Pitch your solution.
31% of COVID-19 patients who are put on a breathing machine, contract a bacterial pneumonia, 96% of which will die as a result of this secondary infection. The presence of a medically essential breathing tube increase the risk of a bacterial pneumonia by 600-2000%.
We have created a breathing tube that effectively suctions the fluid and bacteria before it has a chance to leak into the lungs.
The device is proven to reduce a patient's time on mechanical ventilation, decrease antibiotic use, decrease respiratory therapy needs, reduce the rate of concurrent bacterial pneumonia, and reduce mortality.
If every patient in US ICUs used this tube, we would save $12B/yr. This breathing tube has the potential to mitigate the impact of COVID-19, the exact impact will depend on the number of hospitalizations.
Film your elevator pitch.
What specific problem are you solving?
Patients undergoing mechanical ventilation are at high risk of contracting bacterial pneumonia. The chief risk factor is the placement of a breathing tube.
By creating a safer breathing tube, we can make invasive mechanical ventilation safer for 200M people annually.
Specifically, for COVID-19 cases, our breathing tube can reduce transmission of the virus inside the hospital and ensure better outcomes for patients.
What is your solution?
The NeVap Aspire Subglottic Suction Endotracheal tube is the only multi-port subglottic suction endotracheal tube. This breathing tube utilizes a suction appendage that prevents tissue herniation and suction blockage while distributing suctioning along a semi circular region where fluid and bacteria can accumulate.
The Aspire is the only suction breathing tube that can apply suctioning during intubation, ventilation and extubation to reduce the creation of infectious aerosol particles.
The Aspire can also be used safely with the need for suction pressure regulation, which is usually only available in the ICU. As a consequence, the benefits of the Aspire can be extended to other settings like the OR, ED, EMS, and resource restricted environments.
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
The NeVap breathing tube serves all hospital stakeholders.
For clinicians, the tube can be used to remove aerosol particles during aerosol generating procedures (AGP). The WHO classifies intubation and extubation as high risk AGPs.
For patients, this tube has been proven to reduce time on mechanical ventilation, antibiotic use, respiratory needs, concurrent bacterial pneumonias, and mortality.
For hospitals, each case of ventilator associated or post operative pneumonia related to a breathing tube costs between $43,000-$46,000/case. It is estimate that the use of our breathing tube can save the hospitals system thousands of dollars per patient.
Explain how the problem, your solution, and your solution’s target population relate to the Challenge.
We are focused on providing a safer more effective breathing tube to hospitals and clinicians treating COVID-19 patients all around the world. As our device is FDA/CE mark cleared our focus areas are foremost the United States and European Union.
However, we have donated a large number of devices in Mexico and are in contact with distribution partners in South Africa and Peru.
What is your solution’s stage of development?
Scale: A sustainable enterprise working in several communities or countries that is looking to scale significantly, focusing on increased efficiencyWho is the primary delegate for your solution?
Benjamin Wang MD (Founder/Chief Medical Officer)
In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
San Jose, CA, USAWhich of the following categories best describes your solution?
A new technologyDescribe what makes your solution innovative.
Single suction port breathing tubes utilize 1 suction port that comes into direct contact with airway tissue and rapidly herniates tissue. Competitors include the Medtronic Taperguard EVAC, Avanos Kimvent with Suctioning, Teleflex ISIS HVT, and Smith Medical SACKETT.
The NeVap Aspire utilizes a suction appendage with 24 suction fenestrations that are directed away from tissue, making the suctioning virtually unblockable.
Describe the core technology that powers your solution.
Single suction port breathing tubes have a tissue blockage rate of 95% after 5-15mins. These specialties tubes require suction pressure regulation and are only utilized in the ICU setting.
The NeVap Aspire suction breathing tube utilizes a suction appendage to provide subglottic suctioning. This appendage disperses suctioning away from airway tissue and acts as a tissue spacer. Thus, the suctioning is on the NeVap Aspire is virtually unblockable, even after several days of clinical use. The lack of tissue entrapment also means that the Aspire does not require suction pressure regulation and can operate in a number of clinical settings including the operating room, intensive care, emergent care, and EMS settings. The appendage is also radiopaque and allows for superior radiofrequency positioning of the breathing tube.
Provide evidence that this technology works.
Abstracts, presentations, and papers submitted to the American Academy of Respiratory Care and Society of Critical Care Medicine have demonstrated that NeVap Aspire breathing tube has significantly better fluid recovery when compared to industry gold standards.
"A 48-HOUR COMPARISON OF 4 SUBGLOTTIC SUCTION ENDOTRACHEAL TUBE MODELS IN EX-VIVO PORCINE TRACHEAS"
"Performance Characteristics Of Endotracheal Tubes During Single Port Subglottic Suctioning versus Multi Port Subglottic Suctioning in an Ex Vivo Porcine Trachea Model"
Please select the technologies currently used in your solution:
What is your theory of change?
It is well documented that breathing tubes cause pneumonia at a rate of 0.01%-27% depending on the patient's health and time on mechanical ventilation. In 2009, the US reported 350,000 cases of ventilator associated pneumonia in the ICU setting.
Single suction breathing tubes have been proven through meta-analysis to reduce the rate of pneumonia by 40-66%. However, the rate of rapid suction blockage of these tubes is between 50-95%, with case studies that demonstrate airway damage.
The NeVap multi-port suction breathing tube has been proven through clinical study to have virtually no suction blockage and recover 10-15X the volume of secretions. As a consequence, the clinical and financial impact of this tube is likely to be significant.
Select the key characteristics of your target population.
Which of the UN Sustainable Development Goals does your solution address?
How many people does your solution currently serve? How many will it serve in one year? In five years?
We are on track to sell 20,000 breathing tubes this year.
Next year we anticipate selling 50,000 breathing tubes.
In five years, we hope to sell 1M breathing tubes.
What are your goals within the next year and within the next five years?
By proving the NeVap Aspire breathing tube can reduce the rates of post operative pneumonia the operating room for patients undergoing Cardiac, Neurological, Orthopedic, Gastrointestinal, Trauma, Burns, or Pulmonary surgery, this device could quickly become a standard of medicine.
By reducing the incidence of pneumonia in patients undergoing mechanical ventilation, this tube can extend the useful life of our current antibiotics, save lives, reduce perioperative costs, and increase the supply of critical medical services.
What barriers currently exist for you to accomplish your goals in the next year and in the next five years?
In order to further scale our solution, NeVap will need to raise funding in order to conduct a high quality, high powered clinical study. In addition to key clinical opinion leaders and recruiting additional talent, NeVap needs to raise additional funding to support sales and marketing activities.
Covid-19 has also changed the way medical devices are brought into hospitals. The pandemic has frozen contracting and normal sales channels.
How do you plan to overcome these barriers?
In order to introduce the NeVap breathing tube into hospitals in a time of a pandemic, NeVap has identified distributors who do not rely on a hospital sales force to introduce products into hospitals. NeVap has also created an innovative marketing message and strategy to position our solution as not just "another breathing tube", but a mitigating factor to help protect clinicians from cross infections.
What type of organization is your solution team?
For-profit, including B-Corp or similar modelsIf you selected Other, please explain here.
N/A
How many people work on your solution team?
Full time staff includes 3 people.
Part time staff includes 4 people.
How many years have you worked on your solution?
6 years
Why are you and your team well-positioned to deliver this solution?
30 years of C-level medical device management experience
20 years of direct patient care experience
30 years of medical device engineering experience
10 years of medical device regulatory/quality experience.
What organizations do you currently partner with, if any? How are you working with them?
Manufacturing partnership in place. Our Taiwanese manufacturing partner helps manage supply chain and quality.
What is your business model?
Do you primarily provide products or services directly to individuals, or to other organizations?
Organizations (B2B)What is your path to financial sustainability?
Selling products.
Our product is currently being manufactured at scale. Our gross margins are 85% and we have signed up a number of distribution partners.
Solution Team
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Dr Benjamin Richard Wang MD Chief Medical Officer, NeVap Inc
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Solution Name:
Aspire breathing tube