Hemorai is a company dedicated to developing portable and non-intrusive solutions to assist caregivers in the detection and prevention of acute hemorrhage.
Trauma is the leading cause of death under 45 in the United States and the fourth overall for all age groups, killing nearly 148,000 people in 2014 alone and costing an estimated $670 billion in medical expenses and lost productivity.
Postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) is the leading cause of maternal mortality worldwide, and consistently one of the top 3 killers of child-bearing women in the United States. The World Health Organization estimates that 60% of deaths were caused by PPH and that approximately 14 million cases of PPH occur each year.
Tim Phillips, Ph.D. is a mechanical engineer with a passion for design and manufacturing. At Hemorai and as a consultant, he has driven the design process for numerous biomedical devices, including optical imaging systems, tissue harvesting probes, and medical storage monitoring devices. Tim has experience taking these ideas from rough sketches through ideation and prototyping and into early-stage production.
As a researcher, Tim has focused on improving control for manufacturing systems and developing new functional materials for Additive Manufacturing. Dr. Phillips has worked on developing flaw detection methods in Additive Manufacturing systems and designed novel control architectures to improve manufacturing outcomes. He has also created and evaluated unique materials for Additive Manufacturing, such as lithium-ion battery materials, high-temperature ceramics, and high-strength implantable polymers.
Nitesh Katta, Ph.D. worked in the field of applied electrical engineering for more than 12 years. Nitesh has worked in the field of biomedical optics and fundamental laser-surgery research for more than 6 years. As part of his doctoral dissertation, he developed bench-top and catheter systems for image-guided surgery for brain cancer tumor resection in in vivo xenograft murine models. Nitesh is one of the early developers of precision in vivolaser surgery for brain cancer utilizing optical coherence tomography (OCT).
Austin McElroy, M.Sc. has been a research scientist for over 15 years in almost all aspects of Electrical Engineering: circuit design, embedded systems, high speed parallel computing, and machine learning. Mr. McElroy’s master’s work mainly focused on biomedical optics and imaging, Austin has expanded his expertise to other bio-signals such as EEG and EKG data acquisition and wireless transmission. As a lead software architect in two labs, Mr. McElroy often managed and coordinated graduate students’ efforts ensuring projects were completed on time within the scope of the budget. Many of these projects were funded by the NIH and NSF, so he has an appreciation for cost sensitivity and addressing problems as they arise within the scope of the proposed budget.
Hemorai is improving on a technology developed by UCI with the name of coherent spatial imaging (CSI) system that combines the optical property measurements of srDRS with SPG- based blood flow measurements. This CSI technique allows high-speed measurements of speckle contrast and diffuse reflectance, which provide critical information to assess absolute measurements of pulsatile blood flow, blood volume, stO2, and tMRO2. Using miniaturized optoelectronic components allows us to map radially-varying diffuse reflectance of coherent light from tissues, which in turn enables absolute measurement of absorption and scattering contrast. As the supply and utilization of oxygen can become decoupled in abnormal physiological states, CSI has the potential to measure the hemodynamic dysfunction that is expected to occur during early stages of hemorrhage.
(A) Photograph and 3-D model of the CSI sensor probe. (B) Block diagram of the CSI sensor electronics, consisting of a custom PCB, commercial PCB, and camera board. (C) Block diagram of the timing scheme used to control the VCSEL and LEDs. (D) Representative measurements of the VCSEL and LEDs
The HEMI is a low-cost, portable, easy to use, and non-invasive hemorrhage detection device that combines optical spectroscopy with Artificial Intelligence to measure hematocrit levels from the bleeding mother to warn the provider of impending clinical deterioration and hemorrhagic shock.
With rapid diagnosis and access to treatment, PPH is relatively easy to treat by clearing the placenta, stimulating uterine contractions, administering oxytocin, or performing a blood transfusion. However, early PPH detection can be limited for a majority of mothers in resource-poor settings. Yet, these challenges aren't limited to these areas since PPH continues to occur in 4-6% of pregnancies in the U.S. and significantly detracts from maternal health in the developed world. Causing death in 1 out of every 50,000 American deliveries, PPH should be a serious concern for mothers and providers everywhere.
Untreated PPH, caused by uterine atony when the uterus fails to contract after delivery, can lead to shock before potentially causing death. The majority of maternal mortalities occur within the first 24 hours after delivery when PPH is not diagnosed and treated quickly enough. Early detection of PPH is especially integral since symptoms often do not appear until significant blood loss and shock begin. When shock occurs, it could be too late to treat PPH if the nearest treatment is far away (which is a commonality in rural and resource-poor deliveries) or when delivery is handled at the residence by midwives.
This device is undergoing a clinical validation protocol at The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB Health) in Galveston, Tx.
Our solutions improves time to diagnosis and access to care employing Biophysics and Artificial Intelligence.
Visual Evaluation and Quantification of Blood Loss are the most common methods for recognition of excessive blood loss by clinicians.
This is some of the equipment used today to quantify blood loss which is not required when using Hemorai's solution:
In this video from the Postpartum Hemorrhage Project (AWHONN), it can be appreciated the problem and existing solutions that require considerable effort form the caregiver. Hemorai radically improves the quantification process by eliminating calculation work and providing a more precise measurement of blood loss.
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