Commercial

JED

Client - Hypnoz Therapeutic Devices, Inc.

 

 

Background

Sedatives and anesthetics relax the tongue and soft tissues around the airway and commonly produce airway obstruction. Preventing airway obstruction is critical for patient safety: more than 40% of insurance claims associated with sedation involve failures to ventilate that lead to death or permanent brain damage. The current solutions to this problem are either invasive or cumbersome. Artificial airways can be placed in the patient’s nose or mouth, however these provoke coughing, gagging, bleeding, or movement during a procedure. The anesthesia provider may open the airway by using his or her hands to lift the jaw (called jaw thrust), but this is fatiguing to perform for any length of time.

The JED™ is comprised of a three-way adjustable apparatus that mechanically provides jaw thrust. Once positioned, the JED™ will maintain jaw thrust until the patient awakens, thus giving the provider a hands-free solution to keep the airway open. Convenient, comfortable and easy to apply, the JED™ lifts the patient's head to flex the neck, and then advances the mandible while rotating the head backwards, safely opening the airway. The JED™ has a disposable component consisting of a mandible cup and soft foam. Because this portion of the device is single use, it prevents patient-to-patient contamination and furnishes the company with a sustainable revenue model.

Development and Commercialization

The principal at PingerWare worked closely with the company as a member of its executive team from the startup phase through the investment period, collaborating to refine the design concept, secure a design patent to protect the intellectual property, and provide strategic management guidance to successfully introduce the first commercial version of the JED™ to the market.