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Health care grants from Protolabs spur feeding tube inventions

MedStar Health is joint winner of the Protolabs Cool Idea Award: Healthcare Grant

MedStar Health’s gravity feed syringe holder simplifies the feeding of newborns who spend their early days in NICU incubators. Photo provided by Protolabs

Minneapolis-based Protolabs has named MedStar Health and Cleveland Clinic Innovations as joint winners of the Cool Idea Award: Healthcare Grant. These grants provide in-kind manufacturing services to support development of medical products, spurring innovation in the field.

MedStar Health’s gravity feed syringe holder simplifies the feeding of newborns who spend their early days in temperature-controlled incubators while being cared for in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). It alleviates the need for a nurse to hold the syringe above the baby during the feed and frees the nurse to other duties while still attending to the baby during feeding. The compact device can hold four different sizes of syringes and was designed to be suspended from the top of the incubator or attached to an IV pole.

The grant was used to improve the device’s design. The iterative 3D-printing process helped identify several improvements to the prototype, including smoothing the corners, adding sturdier syringe clips, and incorporating gaskets to keep infants safe while protecting the incubator. Clamps securely fasten the gravity feeder device to an IV pole.

At Cleveland Clinic, inventor Andy Williams and Dr. Eric Blumrosen teamed up in an effort to improve outcomes for people with enteral (feeding) tubes. In current practice, a feeding tube is surgically placed directly into the digestive tract, but that interface is prone to significant leakage and the highly acidic fluids can irritate and injure patients.

The leak-stopping device forms a wide seal around an enclosed hole into which the tube is inserted. This eliminates issues with friction where the tube rubs against the skin. Also, it provides a more focused opening that enhances the seal surrounding the tube and allows limited motion of the tube.

The Protolabs in-kind manufacturing grant gave Cleveland Clinic Innovations access to manufacturing engineers who helped improve the device’s design for commercial use. It also helped fund prototype injection molded parts.