01.30.15
ieCrowd, a discovery-to-market commercialization platform for innovation, is planning to commercialize a new class of intelligent supplemental oxygen devices that integrate new technologies for delivering demand-driven and efficient oxygen flow to people living with chronic lung diseases.
ieCrowd acquired the exclusive license for the innovation’s underlying technology from University of California-San Diego, where the first prototype had been developed to address significant inefficiencies in supplemental oxygen devices currently on the market. The technology is being commercialized by Breathing Technologies Inc. (BTI), a new subsidiary company formed by ieCrowd.
Millions of people suffer from chronic lung diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), severe asthma, cystic fibrosis and lung cancer, all of which result in low blood oxygen levels and severely limit daily activity. The problem continues to grow – COPD currently is the third most common cause of death in the United States with approximately 14 million COPD patients and the number two cause of death in China, with more than 40 million afflicted, according to industry statistics. ieCrowd plans to include features designed for use by patients around the world, including in countries that to date have had limited access to oxygen therapy options.
“Existing oxygen delivery devices make it challenging to accurately address an individual patient’s need for oxygen in real time,” said Stephen Abbott, ieCrowd’s chief discovery officer. “Our oxygen therapy device is being designed to provide a new, real-world solution that automatically and intelligently optimizes and automates the oxygen delivery process. This could simplify the patient’s use of supplemental oxygen expanding mobility and range, encouraging movement and activity, and reducing costs – all of which are important pieces to improving quality of life for patients.”
A human clinical trial of the device recently was completed at the Pulmonary Rehabilitation Clinic at UC-San Diego Medical Center. Funding for the trial was provided by the University of California Proof of Concept Program.
Targeted to become the market’s first smart, adaptive oxygen delivery system, the device uses a patient’s real-time oxygen requirements, based on sensor feedback and computer algorithms, to establish a user’s oxygen demand, ieCrowd notes. The innovation is being developed to meet a patient’s oxygen requirements based on changing demands throughout the day. Current systems deliver oxygen based on regulator presets and patient adjustments, often creating a burden to the patient, shorter tank lifecycles, limited mobility ranges, and imprecise therapy.
The technology’s development also includes plans to enable communication to mobile devices and the cloud for the monitoring of patient data generated by the device. The device’s underlying technology was developed on the UC San Diego campus by David Lischer and co-inventor Dr. Steve Roberts, Ph.D., IEE. Lischer had been diagnosed with COPD and was seeking ways to expand mobility and quality of life that had been restricted by his limited lung capacity. Lischer, who has 30-40 percent lung capacity, uses a prototype daily that enables him to maintain an active lifestyle which includes golf and working on his ranch.
“Making the value in this technology available to the millions of potential patients in the U.S. and abroad is a fantastic outcome of UC San Diego’s research mission,” said David Gibbons, assistant director of Technology Transfer and IP, at UC-San Diego. “As with any successful university derived product, the benefits here include not only long-term revenue, but also the tangible positive impact universities can have on everyone, and connections to new people and institutions as the beneficial technology becomes an ambassador for the university.”
Innovation Economy Corporation’s (DBA ieCrowd) mission is to transform breakthrough life and health discoveries into solutions capable of solving global challenges. ieCrowd's business model combines entrepreneurship and the collective power of the Crowd. It follows a three-pronged approach by working with research institutions to identify promising technologies, developing a business around the solution and launching products to a global market using strategic partners. The crowd plays a role in each stage of ieCrowd’s mission to solve global challenges – from crowd-sourced innovations to crowd-funding, and crowd-supported product development to crowd-sourced market solutions. Founded in 2010, ieCrowd has established a global ecosystem of institutions, government agencies, universities, non-profits, companies and individuals.
ieCrowd acquired the exclusive license for the innovation’s underlying technology from University of California-San Diego, where the first prototype had been developed to address significant inefficiencies in supplemental oxygen devices currently on the market. The technology is being commercialized by Breathing Technologies Inc. (BTI), a new subsidiary company formed by ieCrowd.
Millions of people suffer from chronic lung diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), severe asthma, cystic fibrosis and lung cancer, all of which result in low blood oxygen levels and severely limit daily activity. The problem continues to grow – COPD currently is the third most common cause of death in the United States with approximately 14 million COPD patients and the number two cause of death in China, with more than 40 million afflicted, according to industry statistics. ieCrowd plans to include features designed for use by patients around the world, including in countries that to date have had limited access to oxygen therapy options.
“Existing oxygen delivery devices make it challenging to accurately address an individual patient’s need for oxygen in real time,” said Stephen Abbott, ieCrowd’s chief discovery officer. “Our oxygen therapy device is being designed to provide a new, real-world solution that automatically and intelligently optimizes and automates the oxygen delivery process. This could simplify the patient’s use of supplemental oxygen expanding mobility and range, encouraging movement and activity, and reducing costs – all of which are important pieces to improving quality of life for patients.”
A human clinical trial of the device recently was completed at the Pulmonary Rehabilitation Clinic at UC-San Diego Medical Center. Funding for the trial was provided by the University of California Proof of Concept Program.
Targeted to become the market’s first smart, adaptive oxygen delivery system, the device uses a patient’s real-time oxygen requirements, based on sensor feedback and computer algorithms, to establish a user’s oxygen demand, ieCrowd notes. The innovation is being developed to meet a patient’s oxygen requirements based on changing demands throughout the day. Current systems deliver oxygen based on regulator presets and patient adjustments, often creating a burden to the patient, shorter tank lifecycles, limited mobility ranges, and imprecise therapy.
The technology’s development also includes plans to enable communication to mobile devices and the cloud for the monitoring of patient data generated by the device. The device’s underlying technology was developed on the UC San Diego campus by David Lischer and co-inventor Dr. Steve Roberts, Ph.D., IEE. Lischer had been diagnosed with COPD and was seeking ways to expand mobility and quality of life that had been restricted by his limited lung capacity. Lischer, who has 30-40 percent lung capacity, uses a prototype daily that enables him to maintain an active lifestyle which includes golf and working on his ranch.
“Making the value in this technology available to the millions of potential patients in the U.S. and abroad is a fantastic outcome of UC San Diego’s research mission,” said David Gibbons, assistant director of Technology Transfer and IP, at UC-San Diego. “As with any successful university derived product, the benefits here include not only long-term revenue, but also the tangible positive impact universities can have on everyone, and connections to new people and institutions as the beneficial technology becomes an ambassador for the university.”
Innovation Economy Corporation’s (DBA ieCrowd) mission is to transform breakthrough life and health discoveries into solutions capable of solving global challenges. ieCrowd's business model combines entrepreneurship and the collective power of the Crowd. It follows a three-pronged approach by working with research institutions to identify promising technologies, developing a business around the solution and launching products to a global market using strategic partners. The crowd plays a role in each stage of ieCrowd’s mission to solve global challenges – from crowd-sourced innovations to crowd-funding, and crowd-supported product development to crowd-sourced market solutions. Founded in 2010, ieCrowd has established a global ecosystem of institutions, government agencies, universities, non-profits, companies and individuals.