UB-designed ventilator can safely sedate ICU patient...( BUFFALO N.Y. -- A new recently licen...),Health

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A new, recently licensed medical device developed by University at Buffalo researchers would introduce into intensive care settings the powerful and effective method of anesthetizing patients that works so well in the operating room.

The new UB ventilator has the potential to shorten the length of patient stays in the intensive care unit (ICU) because it will greatly reduce complications and habituation to sedatives used in the ICU. It also is expected to be more cost-effective than current methods of ventilating ICU patients.

The device also may have promising applications in treating large numbers of patients during pandemics or other events with mass casualties because it can safely enable multiple patients to share a single ventilator without the risk of cross-contamination.

The device is designed to cost effectively deliver to patients small amounts of powerful inhalation anesthetic agents as they breathe or are mechanically ventilated.

The portable patient ventilator was invented by Bradley Fuhrman, Ph.D., professor of pediatrics and anesthesiology and chief of critical care at Women & Children's Hospital of Buffalo, and Mark Dowhy, director of the Pediatric Critical Care Laboratory in the UB Department of Pediatrics; both are on staff in the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

The invention, which has been presented at numerous technology exhibitions, including the 2008 World's Best Technologies Showcase, was licensed from UB to Medical Conservation Devices (MCD) of Buffalo, located in UB's New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences.

Fuhrman and Dowhy are founding partners in MCD, and will receive the UB Entrepreneurial Spirit Award at the UB Inventors and Entrepreneurs Reception on March 5.

MCD is raising funds to further develop the prototype for FDA medical-device evaluation. Initial prototype devices have been validated in laboratory experiments. First W
'/>"/>