Irrespective of how superior know-how could get, particularly in well being care environments, each new innovation comes down to at least one easy premise: You see an issue, and you then resolve that downside. And in most medtech circumstances, that resolution is filled with years of next-level genius pondering.
As is the case with Front Line Medical Technologies, maker of the revolutionary COBRA-OS (Management Of Bleeding, Resuscitation, Arterial Occlusion System), a tool that briefly blocks the aorta throughout emergency conditions. We turned to Asha Parekh, Ph.D., cofounder of Entrance Line and the biomedical engineer behind COBRA-OS, to seek out out extra about this gadget and the way forward for medtech.
Parekh says she and her co-founder Adam Energy, M.D., had the concept for COBRA-OS when she noticed there was no surefire solution to get sufferers from level A to level B when they’re bleeding out. “The COBRA-OS supplies circulatory help in emergency conditions. It may be utilized in a wide range of purposes,” Parekh says. “The intent is to maintain a affected person alive till they’ll get the definitive care they want…. So, it’s a short lived measure to maintain a affected person in good standing, whether or not that’s inside a hospital, from the ER to the OR, or it’s a motorcar accident or on a army battlefield.”
Saving Lives Past the Hospital
The gadget has all kinds of purposes and environments, based on Parekh. It’s utilized by trauma surgeons, vascular surgeons, interventional radiologists, cardiologists and emergency physicians. So, it’s not simply one thing you’d want within the hospital. You would possibly really need it in your means there.
“Sadly, for 1 out of 10 of these sufferers that suffer from cardiac arrest outdoors of a hospital, it’s unlikely that their coronary heart will even begin once more. They received’t get the return of circulation,” she explains. “So, that is one software the place we’re making an attempt to bridge that hole and provides sufferers an opportunity to even get to that definitive care.”
Recognizing the Want
In any trade, the perfect resolution architects are those who’ve their eyes large open. They see the issue, after which they discover the answer. Which is what Parekh and Energy did after they noticed affected person care.
“I used to be speaking to individuals who had been working with paramedics, ambulances, emergency rooms, and so they mentioned they had been simply grabbing for something making an attempt to make it work. There’s probably not been something they’ll do within the occasion of cardiac arrest different than simply carry on doing CPR,” she mentioned of the scientific want she saved seeing. “We noticed that there was a possibility to bridge these gaps in care and ask, ‘How can we make this higher?’”
Measuring Medical Success
Affected person outcomes are the first measure of a medical gadget’s success, however elements like feasibility, patentability and monetary advantages additionally outline medtech achievements. Launching a tool just like the COBRA-OS, a Class II gadget with mid-level threat, begins with acquiring a license from the FDA or Well being Canada.
Parekh says that, as a result of the well being care trade is so closely regulated, there aren’t any shortcuts. “We have now to be sure that the outcomes are favorable. However there’s a little little bit of a grey space as a result of our instrument is giving a affected person an opportunity at survival—after they’re already in a state of affairs the place they may die and you might be giving them a last-ditch effort generally.” The extent of damage varies, as do the individuals. “There are pointers, nonetheless; when and on whom we ought to be doing this isn’t utterly set or accepted but.”
Pioneering the Subsequent Technology of MedTech
When Parekh was in her first 12 months of her undergraduate engineering research, she estimated that there have been 10% ladies. In graduate college, she says that jumped to about 20%. And, now, within the biomedical engineering lectures she’s given, she fortunately studies that courses have been virtually 40% ladies. “Biomedical engineering, particularly, has gained numerous traction for ladies,” Parekh says.
The best way she sees it, not everybody ought to be inspired into science, know-how, engineering and arithmetic (STEM) fields. “We have to create consciousness and produce out the eagerness in people who find themselves really desirous about it. That’s what’s going to drive the sphere ahead. We will get the perfect out of individuals after they really like it,” she says, “and we would like individuals like that to develop into their passions.”
That aligns with recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Their projections are that STEM occupations will develop 10.4% between 2023 and 2033 (a a lot quicker charge than the anticipated general workforce development of 4%).
However what’s driving all of it—the information, figures, consciousness—is a ardour for problem-solving.
There are at all times issues within the pipeline, says Parekh. Then it turns into a matter of too many issues and never sufficient time to unravel all of them. “We want we had time to work on each undertaking that we wished to,” she says. “COBRA-OS is a ardour undertaking. We really, really love, love, like it.”
This text initially appeared within the March/April 2025 issue of SUCCESS journal.
Photograph courtesy Asha Parekh, Ph.D.
