By Graham Cook
Device is intended to keep critically ill patients’ diaphragm muscles working
A company run by Andy Hoffer, an SFU Professor in the Department of Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology, has won the B.C. Technology Industry Association’s “most promising” award in the pre-commercial technology category. This annual distinction recognizes a product that has yet to hit the market, but will be prepared within five years.
The organization, Lungpacer Medical Incorporated, created the Lungpacer, which is designed to assist patients who are on mechanical ventilators to “wean” from the assistance.
The company works with a variety of current SFU students and alumni. Graduates Bao Tran, Mark Nolette, and Jessica Tang all work as developers, while current students include biomedial R&D engineer Ram Meyyappan, clinical research associates Colin Francis, Rodrigo Sandoval, and Bernard Afram, and co-op students Vincent Wong and Simeon Leung.
“[The Lungpacer is] a temporary medical device that is intended . . . to hopefully prevent the rapid onset of diaphragm atrophy,” Hoffer told The Peak. The device will “electronically pace the diaphragm in sync with the ventilation. . . . The patient is still on the ventilator, but now what happens is the diaphragm is pumping along.” He continued to state that this “commonly happens in people that are placed on a mechanical ventilator, people who are critically ill and are rushed to the ICU that can’t breathe . . . and need a machine to pump air into the lungs.”
The introduction of this product will apparently have three medical benefits, according to Andy Hoffer. Primarily, this electronic pacing will help maintain strength in the diaphragm. In addition, he stated that “the moment the diaphragm starts helping, the positive pressure that the ventilator has to push air in immediately drops,” which lessens the risk of injury to the patient’s lungs. The final benefit is that when the diaphragm is working, it pumps blood as well as air, whereas mechanical ventilators are notorious for restricting blood flow.
“They are a false friend because, in many cases, there are serious secondary consequences to being connected to a machine,” said Hoffer of the risks involved with mechanical ventilation. He stated that one possible negative outcome is that the brain stem that drives the diaphragm may shut down as “the machine takes over and does the job of oxygenating the body . . . but also ‘sidelines’ the diaphragm.” He went on to explain that the breakdown, or atrophy, of the diaphragm happens at a much faster rate than it would in other skeletal muscles, which makes it a very severe threat to a patient’s health the longer they spend on a ventilator. So rapidly, in fact, that damage is done after just 18 hours on such a device, leading 30 per cent of patients to be unable to wean from the ventilator.
“The work began conceptually five-and-half years ago, when I rushed to my mother’s bedside when she was rushed into the ICU with pneumonia and put on a ventilator,” stated Hoffer. He said that he spent five weeks with her and that roughly one week after she had been on a ventilator the doctors said that the pneumonia was under control with anti-biotics and that she should recover. However, the weaning process was unsuccessful and led to her death three months later. Hoffer described seeing her ability to breath worsen in the afternoons. This is a symptom which Hoffer said is common in those weaning from ventilators of all ages, referencing an 18-year-old motorcycle crash victim that he observed in the same ICU.
Hoffer stated that their future plans for the company tend to revolve around two key goals. The first is to finish the testing phase and get the product ready for humans. The second is to patent the device in order to protect the technology. Hoffer estimated that the Lungpacer could be in the market within the next three years.
