Pneumonia arising from the use of ventilators and feeding tubes in the ICU are disturbingly common and often life threatening. ART MEDICAL, a company based in Netanya, Israel, has developed technology that may help prevent aspiration pneumonia and ventilator associated pneumonia. We were curious about this development and spoke with Liron Elia, CEO of ART MEDICAL, about the technology, how it works, and what clinicians should expect from it.
Medgadget: Aspiration pneumonia and ventilator associated pneumonia are some of the most common and pernicious dangers to ICU patients. How does the smART system help prevent these conditions?
Liron Elia: The system uses sensors that are located on the smart sensor-based tubes that give real-time continuous feedback, and the system can take active actions, either by automated procedures or by alerting the attending nurse or physician.
Medgadget: How did the idea for this technology come about? Was there a “spark” that someone had?
Elia: It came up in discussion I had with a young doctor that was extremely frustrated with a specific medical case. She explained to me that although she did everything possible, one of her patients died from Pneumonia related complications in the ICU, which was not the original reason for the initial hospitalization. I became interested in finding a solution, which led me to ART MEDICAL.
Medgadget: On your website it says that ART MEDICAL’s technology uses “previously untapped data to detect and prevent life-threatening conditions.” What are you referring to here?
Elia: New data that is detected on our disposables that until now was not monitored, such as the initial and continuous position of the feeding tubes.
Medgadget: How much does the smART system complicate an already busy ICU environment? Can you describe how it’s installed and used?
Elia: It actually simplifies the chaos of the ICU, since it offers advanced results using the standard of care procedures that are currently used. With the smART system, some procedures are done automatically and could not have been carried out otherwise due to real-time continuous monitoring. For example, the process of inserting the smART system’s feeding tube is the same process as inserting a standard feeding tube, however the smart tubes uses auto confirmation to positioning the tube in the appropriate place.
Medgadget: Does the system interact with in-hospital electronic medical records systems? What kind of data does it share?
Elia: Our system will share its insights with the EMR.
Medgadget: What is the future for ART MEDICAL? Do you expect to develop other medical technologies or are you currently only focusing on smART?
Elia: With our recent funding we are currently expanding our product line to monitor/treat more medical conditions that present themselves in the ICU, that were not part of the original reason for patient hospitalization.
Link: ART MEDICAL’s homepage…