Main Line Health nurse invents device to help diabetics and other patients with wound care
During her three decades as a nurse, Main Line Health’s Colleen Rogers has cared for diabetic patients too weak to lift their leg to allow her to change the dressing on foot or limb wounds by herself. The registered nurse wondered why there wasn’t a device to cradle the limb instead of having to find another nurse to hold it up.
So she came up with an idea for a simple-to-operate, adjustable device but dropped it for lack of time or know-how to make it happen – until two years ago, when the Lankenau Institute for Medical Research (LIMR), part of Main Line Health, put out a call for invention ideas from frontline healthcare workers that could be advanced to prototyping and production to benefit patients. The device’s development was on.
“I was thrilled to death to finally be able to have somebody interested in it,” Rogers said. “We do so much wound care. For a person who’s not compromised, it’s hard to hold your leg up to let us dress the wound if you’re not fit, let alone if you’re sick and in a hospital bed, or even on a ventilator.”
Lankenau Ventures, a joint venture formed to accelerate development and commercialization of inventions conceived by those in the medical field like Rogers, has now licensed the invention. The joint venture includes LIMR; L2C Partners of Wynnewood, LIMR’s intellectual property manager; and Early Charm Ventures of Baltimore, an engineering-oriented invention shop that can bring such new devices to market.
While a variety of limb support devices are on the market, some are bulky and not easily maneuverable, and others are intricate and expensive. Some have to be affixed to the hospital bed. Many can be used on arms or legs, but not both.
The Rogers Limb Support Device is height- and position-adjustable, allowing any limb to be comfortably supported. Its mobile base can slide underneath a bed, making the device ideal in tight spaces like a patient room. It is also affordable, lightweight and mobile. A patent for the device has been filed.
“This is exactly the kind of practical, smart concept that we were looking for when we asked nurses to provide their ideas for new inventions,” said George Prendergast, President and CEO of LIMR. “Patients and caregivers stand to benefit, and I believe hospitals and other medical facilities will be eager to put it to use.”
There are any number of settings where Rogers’ device could benefit. The United States has over 5,000 hospitals, of which 420 are long-term acute care hospitals. It also has 15,600 nursing homes with 1.7 million licensed beds, with patients ranging from diabetics to wounded vets who could benefit. The global wound care market is projected to reach $22 billion by 2025.
This device would allow healthcare facilities to save on personnel and cost by reducing the number of occasions when two caregivers would be required to attend to a patient instead of one.
With a nurse-turned-inventor like Rogers, it’s easy to understand why Main Line Health twice has received the System Magnet® designation from the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), the nation's highest recognition of excellence in nursing care, awarded to only 8 percent of hospitals overall.
“I was so happy when my manager at Bryn Mawr Rehab, Nick Caines, connected me with Merle Gilmore of L2C Partners,” Rogers said. “This was an idea in the back of my head, and now I have people working on this to help nurses and patients.”
See here to view the full list of LIMR-developed IP and technologies available for licensing posted on the LIMR website.
About L2C Partners
L2C Partners, founded in 2015 by Merle Gilmore, provides outsourced technology transfer and commercialization services in the pharma, bioscience and tech categories for educational institutions and research centers.
About Early Charm
Early Charm is a venture studio based in the Charm City (Baltimore) that creates, owns and operates companies in four different industry verticals: Advanced Materials, Drug Discovery, AG Tech and Engineered Products. Early Charm continuously engages with industry to identify current market needs. Once those market needs are assessed, we source cutting-edge technologies that fulfill those needs and develop and commercialize the resulting products and services.
About Lankenau Institute for Medical Research
Lankenau Institute for Medical Research (LIMR) is a nonprofit biomedical research institute located on the campus of Lankenau Medical Center and is part of Main Line Health. Founded in 1927, LIMR's mission is to improve human health and well-being. Using its ACAPRENEURIALTM model that integrates academic and entrepreneurial approaches, faculty and staff are devoted to advancing innovative new strategies to address formidable medical challenges including cancer, cardiovascular disease, tissue regeneration, gastrointestinal disorders and autoimmune diseases such as diabetes and arthritis. LIMR's principal investigators conduct basic, preclinical and clinical research, using their findings to explore ways to improve disease detection, diagnosis, treatment and prevention. They are committed to extending the boundaries of human health through technology transfer and training of the next generation of scientists and physicians.