The grant will allow SonarMed to adapt its Airway Monitoring System (AMS) for use in neonatal patients. Dr. Jeffrey Mansfield, SonarMed co-founder and CTO, said continued research in the neonatal area is vital. "When I first began this project at Purdue University in the early '90s, my focus was on the neonatal patient," Mansfield said. "While the use of breathing tubes can result in complications for any patient, the risks are magnified for the neonatal patient. I am gratified that the NIH also sees this critical clinical need, and the support from the NIH will help us continue to improve the medical care for newborns in the critical first weeks of their lives." Mansfield received both his Master's and PhD degrees from Purdue under the direction of George Wodicka, Professor and Head of the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering.

The SonarMed AMS uses acoustic technology to continuously monitor breathing tubes. The AMS may be used to assist clinicians in preventing and detecting conditions that can harm the patient, such as movement of the breathing tube, which can result in ventilation failure or lung damage, and obstruction of the breathing tube, which can deprive the patient of needed oxygen. Compared with the conventional standards of care and available patient information, having this type of adjunctive information about the breathing tube provides clinicians with a more immediate and complete picture of the patient's respiratory support status. This is especially critical for neonatal patients because slight movements of the breathing tube in their small, short tracheas can lead to potentially serious complications. This technology recently received FDA 510(k) clearance.

The technology was developed at Purdue University by Jeffrey Mansfield, George Wodicka and Eduardo Juan (currently Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez) and was licensed through the Purdue Research Foundation's Office of Technology Commercialization.

SonarMed Inc. (http://www.sonarmed.com) is a medical device company providing advanced solutions for precise, real-time breathing tube monitoring for patients requiring ventilator support. Founded in 2005, the company is launching its first product in 2010 - the SonarMed Airway Monitoring System, used to assist clinicians in monitoring breathing tubes to enable prevention of adverse events. SonarMed is headquartered at 5513 W. 74th St. in Indianapolis.