San Diego, CA, October 13, 2021: Cognitive Medical Systems and Thornhill Medical announced today that the two healthcare innovation companies have been selected by the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command to receive $853,668 from the U.S. Department of Defense awarded through the Medical Technology Enterprise Consortium to advance medical device interoperability and remote control to address pandemic conditions and a growing need to support military prolonged emergency field care.
The award is part of USAMRDC’s efforts to improve military field care, keep personnel healthy and combat ready. The treatment of mass casualties, whether on the battlefield or at home has historically been predicated on the availability of well-equipped specially trained medical staff and the ability to rapidly evacuate patients. However, with global events like the COVID-19 pandemic and expected challenges in future near-peer multi-domain conflicts, emergency response planners must now prepare for “prolonged field care” where the sick and injured may be required to remain at the point of injury many days. A flexible, dynamic capacity to safely meet local critical care demand using remotely controlled and eventually autonomous medical devices has emerged as an opportunity for innovation which this award will support.
Enabling remote providers to safely control local medical devices has the promise to augment the bedside team with expertise and experience that they might not otherwise have and will significantly impact workforce requirements. The remote control of bedside medical devices to be used in this project include Thornhill Medical’s FDA-approved MOVES® SLC™ portable integrated life support system, which offers a computer-controlled portable ventilator with oxygen generation capability, vital signs monitoring and suction, and the developmental NeuroWave Systems AccuPump, a novel 2-channel infusion system under development. MOVES® SLC™ has been in use globally for years and was also deployed in the fight against COVID-19 in civilian and remote settings. Additionally, the DocBox® medical IoT platform will be utilized along with expertise and resources from Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Henry M Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, and Massachusetts General Hospital.
“Addressing the resource demands of modern mass casualty care requires innovation,” says Derek Watt, Director of Commercial Products and Thornhill Medical’s project team lead. “We have the opportunity to build healthcare workforce capacity through remote control of medical devices which will ultimately improve patient field care.” Lesley Gouldie, President and CEO of Thornhill Medical, adds “We are extremely pleased to receive this research and development award from USAMRDC and believe that the project outcome will support the advancement of the acute critical care our MOVES® SLC™ device provides to our military healthcare partners.”
While the project is designed to advance the technical ability to remotely control a medical device, doing so safely and reliably is a significant challenge. “Operators of devices such as ventilators and IV pumps make clinical decisions based on their understanding of the bedside context of care,” says Dr. Emory Fry, CEO at Cognitive Medical Systems, adding “when the care team is geographically distributed, remote operators may not share the same context as the local team – this creates significant challenges for care coordination, medical decision making, risk management, and resource allocation that the healthcare community is only beginning to appreciate. The concerns our research is beginning to address extend well beyond simply changing a ventilator setting from afar.”
The views expressed in this news release/article are those of the authors and may not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Army, Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government.
About the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command
The U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command is the Army’s medical materiel developer, with responsibility for medical research, development, and acquisition. USAMRDC produces medical solutions for the battlefield with a focus on various areas of biomedical research, including military infectious diseases, combat casualty care, military operational medicine, medical chemical and biological defense, and clinical and rehabilitative medicine. https://mrdc.amedd.army.mil/
About MTEC
MTEC is a biomedical technology consortium collaborating with multiple government agencies under a 10-year renewable Other Transactional Agreement with USAMRDC. MTEC is managed by Advanced Technology International. To find out more about MTEC, visit mtec-sc.org.
About Cognitive Medical Systems
Cognitive Medical Systems helps public and private organizations make the most of their healthcare and other IT investments. The company draws from decades of operational experience in clinical healthcare delivery, informatics, UI/UX, human factors engineering and enterprise software development, specializing in complex infrastructure, workflows, decision support and systems integration.
Since its founding in 2010, Cognitive Medical Systems’ consistent focus on innovative and solutions-based IT applications drives our progress forward. Our rapid expansion is driven by our continued improvement and innovative approach to solving IT-related challenges. Major contract wins prove our results-driven approach to make our customers successful works. To learn more about Cognitive, please visit www.cognitivemedicine.com.
About Thornhill Medical
Founded in 2004 as a spin-off of Toronto’s University Health Network, Toronto-based Thornhill Medical is a leading developer of innovative medical technologies, including amongst others, its proprietary MOVES® SLC™ integrated life-support technology and MADM™ the first portable in-line vapor anesthesia delivery device that turns any ventilator into an anesthesia workstation. Thornhill Medical’s ground-breaking products are produced to be used around the world by emergency health care providers, military medical teams and disaster relief responders. Thornhill Medical has a wide range of expertise from basic science such as physiology, critical care medicine and electrical and mechanical engineering. Thornhill Medical headquarters are in Toronto, Canada.