Technology Overview

A hand-held, portable, self-contained morcellator would help the user thoroughly grind and blend medication, preparing this mixture for delivery to the patient through a feeding tube. Usage should reduce the likelihood of clogged feeding tubes.

The device will have a digitally controlled set of processes to grind medication, mix medication with a solution, deliver the liquid mixture and then flush residual material from the device and feeding tube.

Applications

Applications for this device are broad, and could be used in hospital, specialty clinic, and home care settings.

Advantages

• Uniformly mix medication
• Portable

Market Overview

The North America feeding tubes market size was $516.1 million in 2020. Currently, feeding tubes are used, for adult and pediatric patients alike, with a variety of clinical conditions, including but not limited to: anything that impairs swallowing function (such as stroke or motor neuron diseases), anything that results in an altered level of consciousness that makes eating impossible, patients who are ventilated, oropharyngeal obstruction such as due to head or neck cancer, anything that results in gastric obstructions, such as tumors, severe pancreatitis, or any other advanced chronic condition that requires nutritional supplementation.

Investigator Overview

Matthew Batie, Rodrigo Gerardo, and Todd Ponsky