Live Fully, Inc awarded a $299,000 SBIR Grant to develop Breathe Away devices for Long Term Oxygen Therapy Patients so they can confidently go about their daily activities of living without worrying about running out of oxygen
By: Colorado BioScience Association Date: 09/30/2021
Live Fully, Inc., a medical device design company is focused on improving the daily lives of lung disease patients through the development of products dedicated to improving outcomes and quality of life, today announced the award of a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant by The National Institutes of Health (NIH). The collaborative grant was awarded to support Live Fully’s development of its novel closed-loop, oxygen (O2) delivery control system that includes an integrated adaptive smartphone-based activity planner. The goal of the system is to improve patient quality of life (QOL) via an enhanced user interface and controller that optimizes oxygen delivery at all times to minimize air hunger during physical exertion while avoiding hyperoxia.
This grant award was made in partnership with Live Fully, Inc., Minnesota HealthSolutions Corporation (MinnHealth), based in Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN, and National Jewish Health (NJH) in Denver, Colorado. Nick Rydberg, MinnHealth VP of Engineering, will serve as the principal investigator (PI), joined by Jeffrey Swigris, DO, MS a pulmonologist at NJH who cares for patients and leads a clinical research lab focused on identifying ways to improve the quality of life for patients suffering from chronic lung disease and Troy Meester, CTO at Live Fully, Inc., is the lead creator of the closed-loop algorithm operating the current prototype.
The award of the $299,000 Phase I grant will support the current development of the Breathe Away product prototype while providing $299,000 in non-dilutive financial resources to the company and it’s partners. Research reported is supported by the National Heart, Lung and Blood institute of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R43HL160356. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute of Health.
The goal of the proposed project is to develop and commercialize an automated mobile closed-loop oxygen control system that includes an integrated adaptive smartphone-based activity planner allowing users to train and utilize what we call personal activities associated with common activities of daily living such as walks in the park and trips to the grocery store. Accurate information will be provided by the system in real-time to provide users with confidence that their oxygen supply is secure. We hypothesize that a closed-loop control system coupled with an accurate, useful, and informative user interface will increase LTOT patients’ mobility, participation in physical activities of daily living, adherence to therapy and overall quality of life; all while maintaining optimal oxygen saturation and reducing overall oxygen consumption.
Tom Vierzba, CEO of Live Fully, Inc, commented, “The SBIR grant program is incredibly competitive and winning this grant reaffirms our dedication to the development and evaluation of a novel closed-loop long-term oxygen therapy control system that includes an innovative smartphone-based companion software application. We hypothesize that such a system will optimize oxygen delivery in mobile patients, minimize air hunger during physical exertion, avoid hyperoxia and improve patient quality of life. More than 1.5 million Americans are currently receiving long-term oxygen therapy. Drawbacks to long-term oxygen therapy include significant limitations to patient physical activity, a heightening of social isolation and impacts to emotional well-being. Improved mobile technology is needed to address these drawbacks and improve patient outcomes.”
Nick Rydberg, added, “MinnHealth is very focused on bringing innovative products to market and looks forward to a successful collaboration with Live Fully, Inc and National Jewish Health in the development of an innovative solution to manage blood oxygen saturation levels in real time while extending the life of an oxygen tank”.
About Live Fully, Inc.
Live Fully, Inc, is headquartered in Monument, Colorado, is an innovative medical technology and solutions company dedicated to improving the lives of lung disease patients on long term oxygen therapy. Founded in 2018, this group has worked to design and build several innovative solutions to improve the daily life and quality of life for long term oxygen therapy sufferers.
Our mission is to improve the quality of life for people suffering from various lung diseases that require supplemental oxygen by providing smart technology that takes the fear, stress, and uncertainty of oxygen management out of their life.
About Minnesota HealthSolutions Corp.
Headquartered with research and development facilities located in the downtown core of the Minneapolis/St. Paul metropolitan area, MinnHealth (www.minnhealth.com) develops, evaluates and deploys novel high-impact technologies in a wide variety of regulated health and medical markets.
About National Jewish Health
National Jewish Health is the leading respiratory hospital in the nation. Founded 122 years ago as a nonprofit hospital, National Jewish Health today is the only facility in the world dedicated exclusively to groundbreaking medical research and treatment of patients with respiratory, cardiac, immune, and related disorders. Patients and families come to National Jewish Health from around the world to receive cutting-edge, comprehensive, coordinated care.
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Contact: Live Fully, Inc
Tom Vierzba
Chief Executive Officer
719.237.5684