Jeanne-Marie Phillips
HealthFlash Marketing
1234 Summer Street                                                                 
Stamford, CT   06905
888-655-3434
jphillips@healthflashmarketing.com

RSNA Booth 7342

November 28, 2011—Chicago—Medspira, the innovative medical device company, announces a collaboration with Philips Healthcare to offer Medspira’s Breath Hold™ interactive breath control monitoring system as an option for Philips’ BrightView XCT SPECT/CT systems.  Developed by Mayo Clinic physicians, Breath Hold™ is a user-friendly system that enables patients to easily and consistently reproduce a breath-hold reference point to help maintain a consistent breathing pattern during imaging exams and other medical procedures.

According to Jody Garrard, Senior Product Marketing Manager of Philips Healthcare, “A significant number of SPECT/CT studies involve the chest and abdominal organs and are often affected by respiratory motion.  Providing respiratory feedback during a CT exam has the potential to reduce motion artifacts in the CT image without compromising the SPECT/CT workflow.”

“We believe Medspira Breath Hold will help enhance SPECT/CT exams,” said Ryan Gruening, Vice President of Sales & Marketing for Medspira.  “The device provides a simple, unobtrusive way for patients to use biofeedback to control their own breathing, and for the operator to know if the patient is complying with their breath hold instructions, at a relatively affordable cost for the medical facilities.  We are extremely excited about this new SPECT/CT application for our device and our partnership with such a prestigious firm as Philips Healthcare.  Breath Hold is growing rapidly in use for a full range of medical imaging procedures involving the lungs and upper abdomen.”

Breath Hold provides a way to promote predictable breath-hold and breathing patterns with greater control over respiratory motion and is non-intrusive and comfortable for patients.  The device is a significantly more cost effective alternative to traditional reactive breath control technologies.  It will enable a far greater number of sites to effectively address the problems of motion due to inconsistent patient breathing during certain imaging procedures.

Combining an expandable bellows system and pressure sensitive transducer tube, Breath Hold is wrapped around the patient’s chest or stomach and measures changes in abdominal girth due to patient respiration. For breath-hold monitoring, a reference point, typically either an inhale or exhale, is selected.  After selection, the central monitor light communicates when patients have reached their respiratory target, while additional lights visually alert them if they stray from their desired hold position.  To support a reproducible shallow respiratory pattern, patients work to keep their breathing within a central group of lights.

 Medspira makes the benefits of clinically inspired medical devices available to all healthcare professionals and their patients.

Jeanne-Marie Phillips
HealthFlash Marketing
1234 Summer Street                                                                 
Stamford, CT   06905
888-655-3434
jphillips@healthflashmarketing.com

New Biofeedback Device Provides Enhanced Targeting of Radiation Therapy Involving the Lungs and Upper Abdomen

Medspira showcases Breath Hold^TM, an easy-to-use standalone system for reliable respiration monitoring during radiation therapy treatments involving the lungs and upper abdomen. An innovative proactive RT solution, Breath Hold enables patients to accurately self monitor their breathing patterns based on biofeedback delivered by the device’s simple visual display.

Breath Hold represents a non-intrusive, easy-to-use and comfortable way to promote predictable breath hold and breathing patterns that enable precise targeting of tissue affected by respiratory motion.  It incorporates a bellows system and pressure-sensitive transducer tube and a significantly more cost effective alternative to traditional reactive breath control technologies.

Medspira, and Mayo Clinic have entered into an agreement to commercialize, manufacture and market several Mayo Clinic developed products and technologies invented by Mayo physicians and scientists. Mayo Clinic technologies included in the license agreement are two Radiology products currently available in the market, the Interactive Breath Hold Control system and the BC-10 MRI wrist coils, and two technologies that Medspira will develop further, with the intent of making them commercially available in the next 12-24 months. “Medspira is honored to work with Mayo Clinic where research is a critical part of its commitment to excellence and interdependence in the three areas of research, education and patient care”, said Tim Anderson Medspira CEO.

Commercially Available Technologies

The Breath Hold Interactive Breath Hold Control System is a noninvasive device that enables patients to perform consistent, repeatable breath-holds during diagnostic imaging and image-guided interventional procedures.  Respiratory motion and inconsistent patient breath-holds can prevent accurate needle biopsies of small masses in the lung and upper abdomen.  Image-guided needle biopsies can be preformed on an outpatient basis, have less complications, are much less invasive to the patient, and are less costly than surgical biopsies. Breath Hold has FDA cleared (Class II, 513(g)).

Mayo Clinic’s BC-10 MRI Wrist Coil is designed to allow acquisition of high resolution MRI images of the wrist at 1.5 and 3.0 Tesla .  The BC-10s bird cage design  provides a level of detail needed to diagnose many problems with in the complicated structures of the wrist and hand. Products have FDA cleared (510(k) Class II).

Technologies Under Development:

New technologies for diagnosis and treatment of fecal incontinence (FI) will help primary care providers, gastroenterologists, colorectal surgeons, and gynecologists care for patients with FI .  FI is most common in the elderly and in women after childbirth.  Although effective treatments exist, many people and their families have difficulty coping with this embarrassing problem.  Because the existing methods for assessing anorectal functions are expensive and not available in primary care clinics, the condition is often untreated, which can lead to isolation, depression or premature admission to a nursing home. This emerging technology promises to simplify diagnostic assessment and facilitate management of fecal incontinence.

Additional technologies to address concerns over the safety of angiograph contrast agents are also in development . Known as a Hemostasis Valve, the technology allows Cardiologists and Radiologists to more safely, quickly and easily perform catheter based procedures. The valves can significantly reduce bleeding. The procedure is accomplished in less time and gives the physician more control over catheter placement than valves currently available in the marketplace.

Mayo Clinic has licensed these technologies through its Office of Intellectual Property to Medspira and will receive royalties from sales.  Mayo Clinic also holds an equity position in Medspira.

About Medspira

Medspira was formed by a group of private investors to bring new, clinically inspired technologies to a wider audience for the benefit of patients and physicians. It’s highly focused sales model serves the market in both North America and worldwide.  These devices represent the first products for the company.  For more information, contact Sarah Thornton (sthornton@medspira.com).

About Mayo Clinic Office of Intellectual Property

Mayo Clinic has one of the most highly evolved intellectual property and technology commercialization efforts in academic medicine, with a 20-year history of supporting Mayo’s mission.

The Office of Intellectual Property at Mayo Clinic, serves as a bridge between discoveries and the marketplace.  The office works with inventors and commercial industry to determine the right fit for each innovation, whether a sponsored research agreement, licensing agreement, technology-based venture, start-up company or entirely new business model.  Mayo Clinic’s Office of Intellectual Property has filed more than 2,400 patents resulting in over 600 active patent-licensing agreements with business partners in the biomedical and manufacturing industries.