“Timing is critical when caring for patients with sepsis,” Cheryl Reinking, chief nursing officer at El Camino Health, said in a statement. “Our nurses have seen firsthand how effective FloPatch is in monitoring the effectiveness of treatment in deteriorating patients, especially those with sepsis and low blood pressure.”
In partnership with Flosonics Medical, the developer of FloPatch, El Camino Health has been piloting the FloPatch technology for the past year at Fogarty Innovation, the medical technology and startup incubator operating out of El Camino Hospital.
“Our nurses immediately loved it and helped decide where in the hospital the technology would fit best,” Reinking said.
FloPatch is a device approved by the Food and Drug Administration. It provides fast and consistent measurements to help clinicians track a patient’s heart function.
“Once placed on a patient’s neck, the FloPatch continuously assesses blood flow in the carotid arteries, which are the main blood vessels that supply blood to the brain, neck and face,” the statement said. “FloPatch then transmits this data wirelessly to a secure iOS mobile application, providing clinicians with actionable real-time data at the bedside.”
When a patient with sepsis arrives at the hospital, the statement said, the first critical step is to treat them with IV fluids. But administering the right amount of fluid can be challenging, and too much can cause major complications for patients.
“Although tools are currently available that can measure fluid response, they are cumbersome and time-consuming to use,” the statement said. “FloPatch’s advanced analytics engine quantifies and displays changing metrics over the course of an assessment, helping clinicians deliver more accurate fluid management and ultimately better care for patients.”
El Camino Health cited a study that found four to five patients will avoid potentially dangerous fluid overload for every 10 FloPatch uses.
FloPatch is the latest technology to benefit from El Camino Health’s medical technology accelerator program from Fogarty Innovation (FI), a six-month mentoring program that helps early-stage companies grow.
“With guidance from their senior FI mentors, Mike Regan, chief innovation officer, and Dr. Zach Edmonds, strategic advisor, the Flosonics team worked directly with clinicians at El Camino Health to better understand the patient journey and determine the best clinical use for their cutting-edge technology,” the statement said.