Prototype: A Product Development Blog

Video production can be a financial and time investment that many technology transfer offices are nervous about making. Partnering with your university media department or in-house video team is a great way to cut costs if hiring a production company is not in the budget. However, if the budget allows use of a production company, I recommend keeping it local and using them regularly. The more you work with the same people, the easier the process becomes.

At Mercy Research and Development video production has been beneficial to marketing our technologies. If video production is uncharted territory for your Technology Transfer Office, make 2012 the year to try it. Here are five reasons video should be in your product marketing arsenal.

1. Turns the technology into a story. I try to think of every product as a living, breathing being that has a story to tell. Start by establishing the problem to be solved or the need to be met. Introduce the people involved in the creation of the device and the journey to a solution. The inventor of the technology is naturally going to be its number one advocate, so give him or her the platform (in a structured manner) to talk about all the features, benefits and highlights of the device or technology. He or she will add credibility and be able to accurately discuss the technical aspects of the technology.

2. Makes complicated information easier to understand. Whether it is a visual representation like a chart or graph, an animation of a process or a verbal explanation, video can convey information in a way that diverse audiences at varying level of knowledge on a particular topic can understand.

3. Brings a concept to life. Often the solution to the problem is a concept where there is nothing tangible or flashy. This is where video is most beneficial, because anything can exist on-screen. A visual representation will often help a potential licensee better understand your concept, even at its earliest stages of conception.

4. Helps your technologies stand out. This is especially true for smaller, less known TTO offices and R&D labs. You may have the best technology, but if no one knows it is out there it doesn’t matter.

5. Content can and should be repurposed. Use the video during meetings, presentations, at tradeshow booths. Post the video on your website and Facebook account. Tweet about it and add it to your Linked In product page. Create a social media news release and link reporters to it. The possibilities for repurposing the content are endless, so if you are making the investment, get the most out of it.

Over the next eight weeks marketing and licensing professionals with Mercy R&D will post a series of blogs related to creating an effective technology video for your Technology Transfer Office. Topics will include: creating an effective video, how an investment in video pushes technologies out the door, coaching your inventors to get comfortable on camera, and how to be a superstar client and get the most out of your money when working with a production company.

Angela Garrison
Angela Garrison is a product marketing specialist with Mercy R&D, a multidisciplinary research and development group located in Springfield Missouri which works to create better medical devices and innovative, affordable solutions to problems healthcare institutes face. She is responsible for Mercy R&D’s external communications including: social media, marketing, public relations and video prodcution. Prior to joining Mercy R&D she worked in the public relations office at St. John’s Health System, which is part of Mercy Health, the eighth largest Catholic health care system in the U.S.

The CDC is indicating that flu season may be upon us for this year. This provides the perfect setting for a simple reminder of the need for hand hygiene. Viral illnesses like the flu are spread from person to person, most commonly through direct contact. It is important to remember that many times co-workers come to work when they are first experiencing symptoms but are already contagious. Our hands represent the most common point of contact between ourselves and others, making hand hygiene a first line of defense and protection.

Washing with warm water and soap remains a key component of hand hygiene. Hand sanitizers provide a reliable option when it is impossible or impractical to wash between each potential contamination. As a physician and research scientist with an interest in infection prevention, I feel that it is important to consider the following when choosing an appropriate hand sanitizer:

1. How long does the sanitizer offer protection? Alcohol based sanitizers provide the shortest period of protection overall and different products have unique characteristics that may enhance coverage against recontamination.

2. Does the sanitizer dry out the skin resulting in additional cracks and irritations? These minor injuries not only discourage use of a sanitizer often enough, but actually increase your risk of problems.

3. Does the sanitizer burn or sting when applied? Pain when applying is likely to decrease your usage and leave you vulnerable to further infection.

4. Is the sanitizer really a sanitizer? Sanitizers are regulated through the FDA either as drug applications or via monograph. An easy check is to review the label. If the label does not have an active drug listing for an antiseptic or antimicrobial component, then chances are, it is NOT a sanitizer.

Dr. Huckfeldt, inventor of Hands First sanitizer, is the Medical Director for St. John’s Medical Research Institute. He oversees all medical aspects of research activities including: clinical trials, product development and trauma and burn research, and serves as an inventor and scientist as well. Prior to his role in research, Dr. Huckfeldt was the Medical Director for St. John’s Level One Trauma and Burn Center in Springfield, Missouri. He is board certified in general surgery and surgical critical care. For more information about Dr. Huckfeldt’s inventions, visit www.mercyrnd.com.

PR Builds Relationships

Strong relationships are a staple component to any successful PR campaign. PR helps you not only build these relationships with traditional media reporters, but also, through the use of social media, which allows you to build strong relationships with your customers. Social media allows brands to openly participate in the conversation happening about them. You are not just talking to them and hoping they hear your message, you are talking with them. It allows you to engage with your customers and build those valuable relationships where they are. Just because the audience is different and the mode of delivering the message has changed to 140 characters or less doesn’t mean the same tried and true PR relationship building rules don’t apply.
-Be genuine

-Be accurate

-Be timely

-Be accessible

-Be interesting

Whether furthering a relationship with a loyal customer or forming new relationships with first time users or reporters, PR when implemented properly, can help you and your brand build lifelong relationships that are a win-win for everyone.

PR is something you are probably doing already

If you are managing a social media account for your company or organization you are already doing PR (whether you like it or not). As Limpert mentions, PR is no longer focused on traditional forms of media, but on the Internet, where everyone has a voice. PR is not only about the message/story a reporter tells, it is about guiding the story ANYONE following or liking you is telling. This creates a potentially stickier situation than traditional forms of PR can generate.

Social media is all about people being able to communicate in an open forum. It is vital PR professionals focus on guiding the message and actively participating in the conversation, no matter what direction the story takes. Often times it won’t be in the direction you planned, but that is OK. Every market and industry is different, so it is important to make the decision early on about how hands-on or hands-off you are going to be when guiding the discussion. It is a balancing act about putting topics out there that will get people moving and shaking and then hanging on to see where it goes.

Angela Garrison

Angela Garrison is a product marketing specialist with Mercy R&D, a multidisciplinary research and development group located in Springfield Missouri which works to create better medical devices and innovative, affordable solutions to problems healthcare institutes face. She is responsible for Mercy R&D’s external communications including: social media, marketing and public relations. Prior to joining Mercy R&D she worked in the public relations office at St. John’s Health System, which is part of Mercy Health, the eighth largest Catholic health care system in the U.S.

The Corneal Wound Repair Program at Mercy R&D is grant funded by the Department of Defense to develop front-line use products that can save damaged corneas and preserve eyesight after blasts and chemical injuries. During this polymer series, Dr. Kumar Vedantham, a research scientist with Mercy R&D, will discuss the different polymer systems, why polymer size does matter and the method of electrospinning for polymer fabrication as they relate to corneal wound repair research.

Mercy R&D is using electrospinning technology to synthesize a wide range of polymer fibers impregnated inside contact lenses for delivery of drugs to eye injuries suffered in the battlefield. This is a unique approach, as previously no efforts have combined the drug delivery capabilities of polymer fibers with a contact lens. We have successfully fabricated 15 different kinds of electrospun nano/micron size biocompatible polymer fibers inside contact lens material for treating injured corneas. This effort by Mercy R&D will potentially lead to development of next generation contact lenses that house polymer fibers which can help treat a wide range of eye disorders by delivering specific therapeutic agents.

A useful “matrix based” paradigm for drug delivery:

Of all the shapes, a polymer in fiber-like shape is an interesting approach that has gained recognition due to its ease of production and biological significance. Fibers in nanometer range mimic in size and form collagen fibrils within the extracellular matrix. Cells have been shown to interact favorably with fibers as small as 5 nm with documented cellular adhesion, proliferation and migration.

Currently polymeric fibers can be produced by three techniques:

1. Electrospinning
2. Self-assembly
3. Phase separation

Of these, electrospinning is the most widely studied technique and also seems to exhibit the most promising results for tissue engineering and drug delivery applications. Self-assembly and phase separation methods have disadvantages, requiring more time and a complicated processing system. Electrospinning is a simple one-step, top-down process for fabricating nanofibers, and the co-processing of polymer mixtures and chemical cross-linking can be carried out, which provides a variety of pathways for controlling the chemical composition of the nanofibers.

Unique features of electrospinning

Additionally, electrospinning seems to be the only method that can be further developed for mass production of continuous nanofibers from various polymers.

Polymer nanofibers possess unique characteristics, such as:

• Extraordinary high surface area per unit mass (for example, nanofibers with ~100 nm diameter have a specific surface of ~1000m2/g)
• Remarkably high porosity
• Excellent structural mechanical properties
• High axial strength combined with extreme flexibility,
• Low basis weight
• Cost effectiveness

How electorspinning technology works

Polymeric micro or nano sized fibers can be produced by applying an electric potential to a polymeric solution. The solution is held at the tip of a capillary tube by virtue of its surface tension. The electrical potential applied provides a charge to the polymer solution. Mutual charge repulsion in the polymer solution induces a force that is directly opposite to the surface tension of the polymer solution. An increase in the electrical potential initially leads to the elongation of the hemispherical surface of the solution at the tip of the capillary tube, to form a conical shape known as the Taylor cone. A further increase causes the electric potential to reach a critical value, at which it overcomes the surface tension forces to cause the formation of a jet that is ejected from the tip of the Taylor cone. The charged jet undergoes instabilities and gradually thins in air primarily due to elongation and solvent evaporation. The charged jet eventually forms randomly oriented nanofibers that can be collected on a stationary or rotating grounded metallic collector. (DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME)

Kumar Vedantham received his Doctorate in Industrial and Physical Pharmacy from Purdue University in 2009. He joined Mercy R&D in February 2011 and has experience in drug delivery from polymer systems and associated pharmacokinetic studies. His research interest involves working on the interface of biomaterials and drug delivery for controlled release applications.

Applying skin grafts can be challenging, largely due to trapped air or fluid bubbles beneath the graft, which can cause the graft to fail. “Currently, our only way of getting fluids out from under the graft is to take a sponge or gauze, roll it and try to squeeze out the fluid from under the graft,” explained Bharat Shah, MD, FACS, a Mercy plastic surgeon and inventor of GraftOn. With the GraftOn instrument, surgeons roll out air or fluid bubbles under the graft and don’t have to keep changing instruments,” he said.

The three components of the GraftOn include a foam applicator, which is essentially a roller, an ergonomically designed handle that is smooth on one side for smoothing the graft’s edges and a grip tool on the other side for fine tuning.

Last month’s lab tests compared the speed of placing a skin graft using the instruments most doctors use today with R&D’s GraftOn applicator. In both cases, the test was conducted 50 times, resulting in statistically less time to place the graft with the GraftOn device.

The model of product development at Mercy R&D is unique in that physicians bring their ideas for a new product which is then translated by the R&D team into a functional prototype. “I can start out with an idea, but I don’t know how to make something out of that idea. I need the R&D team to help me develop that idea into something that’s real.”

Mercy R&D is integrated with St. John’s Health System in Springfield Missouri. This integration allows for seamless testing of products and devices developed in the R&D labs back in the healthcare setting. End-user testing ensures development of a technically sound, market viable product that also meets a clinical need.

Hands First sanitizer, developed at Mercy Research and Development, is an alcohol free foaming sanitizer that is proven 99.99% effective at killing harmful bacteria and viruses. Skin protectant Allantoin provides temporary relief for minor cuts, scrapes, and burns, while hydrating ingredients provide needed moisture to the hands, eliminating the drying effects of alcohol based sanitizers.

GraftOn was developed to provide surgeons one standard tool for placing a skin graft. Currently, there is no standard tool used by surgeons for graft application. The newly patented device will allow surgeons to more efficiently address the challenges associated with applying skin grafts such as excess fluid buildup, wrinkles in the graft and poor graft adherence.

The model of product development at Mercy R&D is unique in that physicians bring their ideas for a new product which is then translated by the R&D team into a functional prototype. The prototyped device is then used for testing in the clinical setting to insure the design meets the need of the end user.

“Developing a functional prototype allows us to actually test the device to prove that what we believe should happen actually does happen”, said Dr. Roger Huckfedlt, Medical Director of Mercy R&D and the physician who tested the GraftOn. “The ability to use this device and track the data is a critical piece that is going to be used by medical practitioners across the country.”

For more information about GraftOn Skin and Tissue Applicator visit: http://www.mercyrnd.com/products/available/?category=surgical-tool

The Corneal Wound Repair Program at Mercy R&D is grant funded by the Department of Defense to develop front-line use products that can save damaged corneas and preserve eyesight after blasts and chemical injuries. During this polymer series, Dr. Kumar Vedantham, a research scientist with Mercy R&D, will discuss the different polymer systems, why polymer size does matter and the method of electrospinning for polymer fabrication as they relate to corneal wound repair research.

Over the past two decades scientists have acknowledged that “Innovative pharmaceutical treatments require innovative methods of administration.” This perception led to the discovery of various new approaches that control the rate and period of drug delivery (i.e. time-release medications) and target specific areas of the body for treatment that have become increasingly common and complex. The reason to deliver drugs using targeted delivery or deliver in a controlled fashion is to overcome the challenges of lack of bioavailability at the target site commonly encountered in traditional oral or injectable drug formulations.

The goal of all sophisticated drug delivery systems, therefore, is to deploy medications intact to specifically targeted parts of the body through a medium (i.e. polymer) that can control the therapy’s administration by either a physiological or chemical trigger. To achieve this goal, researchers are turning to advances in the worlds of micro-and nanotechnology. During the past decade, polymeric microspheres, polymer micelles, hydrogel-type materials, and polymeric fibers have all been effective in enhancing drug targeting specificity, lowering systemic drug toxicity, improving treatment absorption rates, increasing patient compliance and providing protection for pharmaceuticals against biochemical degradation. In addition, several other experimental drug delivery systems show exciting signs of promise, including those composed of biodegradable polymers, dendrimers (so-called star polymers), and electroactive polymers.

From both a financial and a global healthcare perspective, finding ways to deliver costly, multiple-dose, long-term therapies in an inexpensive, potent and time-releasing or self-triggering formulations forms the nucleus for strategizing the next generation of drug delivery technologies.

Polymers, polymers, everywhere

Polymeric materials still provide the most important avenues for research, primarily because of their ease of processing and the ability of researchers to readily control their chemical and physical properties. Two broad categories of polymer systems have been studied: reservoir devices and matrix devices. Both reservoir and matrix systems are highly complex, and can be described in great detail with copious amounts of scientific jargon. However, I prefer to describe them using two of my favorite sweets: a Hershey kiss and a chocolate chip cookie.

We are all familiar with the silver foil that encases a Hershey kiss, protecting the chocolate contents (and delaying the inevitable!). A reservoir device is very similar, as it involves the encapsulation of a pharmaceutical product within a polymer shell, storing the agent for use once “unwrapped.”. On the other hand, the chocolate chip cookie holds the smaller chips securely throughout the sweet dough. The chocolate is carefully placed to properly distribute the chips throughout the cookie, ensuring each bite is perfect. Like the cookie, a matrix device is a system that physically entraps a drug within a polymer network, ensuring that the entire network can be influenced by the particular agent. No matter which snack is your favorite, both are very important for the future of our research.

Mercy Research & Development is currently developing a polymer based matrix platform that can administer biological agents in a controlled manner to stabilize the cornea until the patient reaches a hospital for further surgical treatment. The goal is to incorporate polymer fibers into a contact lens to engineer the delivery of antibiotics and/or steroids at a controlled rate to help stabilize and further prevent damage to cornea after injuries in the battlefield. The research team is developing a biocompatible electrospun-polymer-nanofiber-based platform that will have the capability to deliver any biological agents at a controlled rate in the cornea. The use of nanofiber in combination with a contact lens is a unique approach for ophthalmic drug delivery.

Kumar Vedantham received his Doctorate in Industrial and Physical Pharmacy from Purdue University in 2009. He joined Mercy R&D in February 2011 and has experience in drug delivery from polymer systems and associated pharmacokinetic studies. His research interest involves working on the interface of biomaterials and drug delivery for controlled release applications.

Dr. Shachar Tauber is the son of a soldier who lost his sight on the battlefield. So he understands the pain and obstacles blind veterans face today.

"I lived with it," said Tauber. "My dad was blinded when he was 17 in the Israeli independence war. A shell fragment took out one eye and ruptured another."

Tauber, an ophthalmologist at St. John's Medical Research Institute in Springfield, Mo., is at the forefront of efforts to develop new products to protect the sight of current and future generations of soldiers who suffer traumatic eye injuries far from sterile operating rooms. The products he develops will be of use in civilian emergency rooms and operating rooms too.

The U.S. military is involved in two wars that have made the improvised explosive device, or IED, a household word. When bombs, mines and IEDs sever limbs and cause life-threatening internal injuries, or serious head injuries, more likely than not, the explosions also damage eyes.

It's been estimated that about 40 percent of war injuries in Afghanistan and Iraq impact the eyes. The National Alliance for Eye and Vision Research reports 16 percent of all casualties involve distorted vision or blindness. That's the highest rate of battlefield eye injuries since the Civil War.

Protect now, treat later Medics and doctors focus on life-threatening injuries in the first crucial hours and days after a soldier is critically wounded. Tauber's research recognizes that reality and places an emphasis on reducing infection risk and stabilizing corneal injuries for later treatment. The products he is developing include glue and a lens that provides temporary protection for the eye.

"These patients tend to be amputees or traumatic brain injuries," said Tauber. "If we can say, 'don't worry about the eye. We've got it covered with glue or a contact lens. You do what you need to do, and we'll be here when you need us,' that's not a bad place to be."

The Department of Defense sees the promise in that approach and has awarded Tauber and the St. John's Medical Research Institute $4.8 million to create products for treatment of traumatic eye injuries and to conduct research on eye injuries. The grant is the institute's first federal contract, and the work will be done in partnership with the U.S. Army, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Springfield's Missouri State University and the University of Colorado.

But even with the casualty-driven urgency and research funding in place, the complex work cannot be rushed. Dr. Roger Huckfeldt, medical director of the institute, said it could take two to four years for Tauber's work on medical contacts and corneal glue to yield market-ready products. Inveno Health, the institute's for-profit commercialization unit, will hold the patents that come out of the work. (See "St. John's institute brings out the inventive side of health system.") The military will get special purchase considerations, Huckfeldt said.

Another Tauber invention funded by the DOD grant is a high-tech thermos for carrying amniotic membranes. The membranes can be used for first aid and for follow-up care of injured corneas. The thermos is essentially ready for commercialization.

Huckfeldt said that the thermos will keep the biomaterial at an optimal chilled temperature, and thus keep the membranes safe and viable for longer even in extreme desert and mountain temperatures in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Tauber explained that the amniotic membrane melds on the eye, eliminating the need for sutures, which can scar the eye. "If you can get these amniotic membranes on these kids and noncombatants within the first hour or two (after injury) you're going to change the long-term viability of that eye."

Back in the U.S., he expects civilian hospitals to use the chiller to transport organs harvested for transplant.

Collecting soldiers' tears In addition to the chiller, Tauber is developing drug-permeated contacts out of polymer fibers that have been spun using an electric charge. He also is creating drug-dispensing corneal glue.

His first-aid lens is intended for insertion by a medic in the field. It will release a protective drug in the first one to three days after the injury or until the soldier can have a laceration sutured or glued by an ophthalmologist. The second lens under development is intended for use up to three months after surgery. It will release a different constellation of medications to advance the healing process.

"Right now patients need eye drops every one or two hours. You can imagine how difficult that is in an ICU," said Tauber. "These lenses would deliver drugs over a longer period, which will really help multi-injury patients."

Tauber's corneal adhesive could be applied as soon as possible after an eye is lacerated to seal a wound and prevent infection, reduce pain and start healing.

"Instead of spending two to three hours in a field hospital sewing up the eye, we anticipate this glue, made of a nanofiber material impregnated with drugs, can be applied in a short 15-minute procedure," said Tauber. "We'll be able to the send the eye in a much more stable way so it isn't at risk of rupturing. We're trying to change the paradigm."

Tauber also will study the tears of American soldiers to better understand how different injuries impact the eyes.

"These injuries are pouring out proteins," said Tauber. "We don't know what they are. But we know they change as the eye recovers, so, we can have biomarkers that we can test. We'll make a library of what normal is, and then we'll come back with all of the injuries and map against the injuries."

Walter Reed Army Medical Center will be supplying the tears, which are easy to obtain, and plentiful.

http://www.chausa.org/St._Johns_doctor_invents_sight-saving_products_for_traumatic_eye_injuries.aspx

Catholic Health World December 15, 2010 Volume 26, Number 22

Copyright © 2010 by the Catholic Health Association of the United States For reprint permission, contact Donna Troy or call (314) 253-3450.

St. John's institute brings out the inventive side of health system By JUDITH VANDEWATER

Doctors are problem solvers by nature. Dr. Roger Huckfeldt suspects that, like him, many doctors have lists of ideas for inventions sure to make them more adept at critical points in procedures or make life easier for patients.

Yet most community doctors don't have the time or connections to transform good ideas into prototypes and products. They file away their notes and product sketches and never pursue them. Huckfeldt's working to change that.

As medical director of the St. John's Medical Research Institute at St. John's Health System in Springfield, Mo., his goal is to make it easier for aspiring inventors to see their ideas through to fruition.

The nonprofit St. John's institute is focused on advancing practical solutions to work-a-day challenges in health care delivery and disease prevention.

When the institute was launched three years ago, it gathered under its auspices all the research being conducted throughout the St. John's system. "We thought if we put it all together, it would be more efficient and we could really grow the business of medical research so that we could find new solutions for some of the problems that we saw in our patients as well as in patients across the country," Huckfeldt explained.

One need not be a star medical researcher or successful inventor to catch the attention of the institute. Huckfeldt routinely entertains ideas from clinicians and other employees of St. John's Hospital and other hospitals in the St. John's system whose credibility as idea generators comes from practical experience in their profession or craft.

Some of the projects involve bench science; others translate bench discoveries to bedside application and some are conceived for direct-to-consumer sales. The institute also is engaged by pharmaceutical companies to manage St. John's participation in late-stage drug trials, Huckfeldt said.

Drug companies reimburse St. John's for clinical trials, but the bulk of the institute's budget comes from the health system, which provides it with an annual allowance commensurate with the projects the institute has under development. Huckfeldt said it can cost well over $1 million a year to operate the institute's research labs.

The business plan calls for revenues from product licenses and direct sales to make the institute self-sustaining within a few years' time. The institute tries to keep about 25 products and projects in its pipeline and hopes to launch one product a quarter. Private, federal and state grants are expected to provide an ongoing contribution to development capital.

Making a market Last year, a state grant helped launch Inveno Health, the institute's for-profit commercialization arm. Inveno Health's two-person staff is tasked with conducting market analyses of proposed products and figuring out the best way to deliver products to market. In some cases, the institute will develop the product as far as it can, then license it for final development and commercialization. In other cases, it will develop the product, brand it and sell it directly to the end user.

Matt Price, Inveno Health's operations manager, said when a product creates a new product category, Inveno Health likely will prove the invention's worth and work out any kinks by testing it within the Sisters of Mercy Health System, the parent system of St. John's. Currently, Inveno Health is working to raise the institute's profile within the St. John's and Mercy health systems to grease the tracks. "We almost have to sell the research end of what we are doing here, and that allows us to 'sell' the product" to product testers and early adopters, said Price.

He said this strategy will be used to prove the merit of a positioning platform invented by a Springfield plastic surgeon. The doctor wanted a device to keep an infant from shifting during cranial reconstructive surgery while giving the surgeon 360 degree access to the baby's head. Dr. Bharat Shah, the inventor, also is developing a system of polymer braces and ties to be used to hold a broken jaw in place. The invention will offer an option to the sharp metal wires now in use.

Shah isn't the only inventor to bring multiple product ideas to the institute. About half of the current projects originated with serial inventors. "They've learned how easy we can make the system," Huckfeldt said.

He is a prolific inventor himself. A former trauma and burn surgeon, Huckfeldt has nine projects of his own under development. His long-acting, alcohol-free, skin-softening hand sanitizer, Hands First, went on the market in August and became the institute's first commercial product. It is being sold under a licensing agreement with a Springfield-based manufacturer.

Huckfeldt said the product encapsulates his expertise as a burn surgeon. "My whole life has been taking care of skin," he said. "We wanted to build something that not only lasted longer than anything out there for protecting skin against bad bugs, but, as importantly, provided protection for the skin. Your hands should feel better at the end of the day than they do in the morning, and that is certainly not what we see in health care workers who have to use alcohol-based products, 20, 30 or 50 times a day."

Dr. Bruce Hedgepeth, a radiologist colleague, came up with the idea for another device that Inveno Health will bring to market in the near future — a plastic sleeve that pops the cap off a tracer chemical vial or liquid pharmaceutical while maintaining a sterile field. The sleeve creates a protective barrier between the nurse or technician who holds the vial for the physician and the needle the physician uses to draw fluid into a syringe.

Getting started Huckfeldt said that nine out of 10 ideas brought to the institute have originated with St. John's medical staff or employees.

To get the review process going, inventors fill out a disclosure manifest listing everything they have thought about in connection with their proposal. "This is to protect them," Huckfeldt said. He reviews the idea or product proposal and initiates a discovery process.

The staff at Inveno Health analyze whether there is enough sales potential for the institute to recover its projected development costs. "Sometimes the answer will be no, but we'll do it anyway" if it fills an important need, Huckfeldt said. There is a patent search, a scientific background search and a literature search, all paid for by the institute. An inventor need bring no cash to the table.

An operating group reviews the results from the discovery stage and considers whether the project is a good one for the institute.

Huckfeldt said that questions asked include, "Do we have the capability to do it? Is it something that really needs to be done? And, can we afford to do the project?"

If the institute decides to move forward, it works out an agreement with the inventor. "We try to make it easy for them to stay involved, and if we keep them actively involved, we are much more likely to be successful," Huckfeldt said. However, he added, "We believe if a product is successful, we should compensate the inventor even if they just bring us an idea and they are not able to help with the creation or testing or any of the follow-up."

The institute covers the cost of research and patent filings. Inventors "have zero risks, and we have a more-than-reasonable payback to them that starts once we've recouped all of the costs of the research," he said.

Cora Scott, director of media relations for St. John's Hospital, said the channel for staff inventions "is good for physician recruitment and retention. This really is a physician satisfier," she said.

http://www.chausa.org/St.Johnsinstitutebringsouttheinventivesideofhealthsystem_staff.aspx

Copyright © 2010 by the Catholic Health Association of the United States For reprint permission, contact Donna Troy or call (314) 253-3450.

“The teacher asked me why there wasn’t an alcohol-free hand sanitizer available that lasted from the time we put it on the kids’ hands in the morning to the time they came back in from recess,” Dr. Huckfeldt said. “Having to reapply sanitizer was both time consuming and expensive.

The unit nurse questioned, “Why can’t you create a hand sanitizer that is skin healthy, doesn’t burn or dry out our hands, protects cuts and scrapes that we have and lasts a long time?”

“As a surgeon, I am constantly worried about the dangers of infection. Alcohol hand sanitizers help reduce that risk, but I really understood the frustrations people have with those currently on the market. That frustration got me thinking…..there has to be a better way.”

So Dr. Huckfeldt and the St. John’s research and development team, housed in the Institute’s lab facilities inside downtown’s Jordan Valley Innovation Center, set upon a solution.

The result is a foam product formula that kills greater than 99.99 percent of common germs AND cleanses and hydrates the skin while providing temporary protection for minor cuts, scrapes and burns.

“While other products claim lasting protection, they really only prevent bacterial regrowth and do not provide lasting protection from the recontamination that occurs with contact with hands, pencils, phones, solid surfaces,” Dr. Huckfeldt explains.

In lab testing, the patent-pending technology has been shown to kill over 99% percent of bacteria that were placed on test subjects’ hands three hours after they use a single application of the new foam.

Hands First uses a combination of ingredients including an extremely gentle surfactant to cleanse the skin, skin healthy all natural moisturizers, FDA approved skin protectants to provide real protection for cuts and scrapes and antimicrobial agents coupled with skin safe compounds to make them last longer. .

Dr. Huckeldt tested the formula against MRSA and other bacteria often considered the harshest of superbugs. The test results show kill rates far exceeding the 99.99 % required by the FDA with only 15 seconds of contact time..

“It basically killed everything we tested it against,” Huckfeldt explained. “When I saw it fought MRSA, Psuedomonas and even cold and flu viruses, I thought maybe we were on to something.”

The product is being bottled Airemaster in Nixa and will be available at retailers across the country and retail locations in Springfield and the surrounding area.

“National ‘big box’ retailers have also showed a lot of interest,” Dr Huckfeldt said. “And with the launch of a nationwide infomercial we’re expecting more to come on board.”

The product is also sold at Invenohealth.com. Inveno Health is the commercialization unit for St. John's Medical Research Institute and is responsible for the manufacturing, marketing, and distribution of products created through the Institute.

St. John's Health System established the St. John's Medical Research Institute (SJMRI) to further the mission of providing excellent health care to the communities they serve, with a special emphasis on assisting the economically challenged. The St. John's Medical Research Institute works closely with clinicians and co-workers to identify areas of patient care that could benefit from improvement. In turn, they strive to create innovative, affordable solutions to problems that they and other healthcare institutions face on a daily basis. As these solutions are tested and validated, they are passed on to Inveno Health for introduction into the healthcare, institutional and retail markets.

St. John’s is part of Mercy – Sisters of Mercy Health System –the eighth largest Catholic health care system in the U.S. and includes 30 hospitals and more than 1,300 integrated physicians in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma.

Creators say the new foam, called Hands First, will not dry like alcohol and includes cleansers, natural ingredients like aloe, to condition hands while killing germs.

Doctors say the problem with alcohol based hand sanitizers is that their effectiveness is gone minutes after the alcohol evaporates.

"We tested it at three hours," says Dr. Roger Huckfeldt, the Director of the St. John's Medical Research Institute. "We brought in human volunteers, put it on hands, waited three hours, and then put 5.4 trillion bacteria on their hands. Then collected the bacteria that were still alive and still killed 99% of the bacteria, even at three hours."

Doctors say Hands First will not dry skin like alcohol, is fragrance free and is not sticky like some products.

"Self drying cleansing agent in it so it also cleanses as well as sanitizes then lasts a long time, doesn't sting, feels good, benefit to people who should use sanitizers all the time - that's most of us," Dr. Huckfeldt says.

Dr. Huckfeldt says good hand washing is still important but sanitizer protects in between times, when you touch the phone or shake hands.

Hands Free will hit the market next Tuesday and will be available at area stores.

In Joplin:

                    * St. John's Medical Equipment Company
* Wilkinson Pharmacy
* Health Essentials
* Medicine Shoppe Pharmacy
* Food 4 Less
* Price Cutter Pharmacy (also in Carthage and Webb City)

                  

In Neosho:

                    * Country Care Pharmacy

                  

http://www.koamtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=12998858#

By KOAMTV, Joplin, MO

Glass containers are just a few of the research items found in the lab. The laboratory is located at the Jordan Valley Innovation Center downtown. The St. John’s Medical Research Institute is releasing a hand-sanitizer that it says is longer lasting, and is actually good for the skin. Dr. Roger Huckfeldt is medical director for the institute. He says that although hand-sanitizers are nothing new, this product is designed with aloe, vitamins, and skin conditioners to hydrate rather than dry out the skin.

“And then we wanted one that would last a long time. And that challenge actually came from a school teacher who wanted to be able to provide some protection for her kids’ hands from the time they got into the classroom, to the time they went to recess. This way when they were high-fiving each other, picking up dirty pencils, coughing, licking their hands, that they had some layer of protection without constantly having to reapply the product [hand-sanitizer],” said Dr. Huckfeldt.

Huckfeldt says that this product is unusual because it acts as a cleanser, not just a sanitizer. It’s designed to work for up to three hours against most common bacteria. He says it does not sting like other hand-sanitizers do, because it provides a layer which guards minor skin abrasions, cuts and scrapes. Huckfeldt says that although there are products available that claim to be long-lasting, they only protect against bacteria re-growth, not new contamination.

“We tested that by bringing in human volunteers to test the product. We had them use the product and wait three hours without touching anything. They could not touch their face; they could not touch the desk. And at the end of three hours we put 5.4 trillion bacteria on their hands. And we found that even at three hours we killed 99.9 percent of bacteria we had just placed on their hands,” said Huckfeldt.

The new hand-sanitizer is a foaming product and comes in a variety of sizes. Huckfeldt says that although it may cost more per bottle than current hand-sanitizers, the cost per application will be the same since this one is longer lasting.

“Everything that we have done with the product so far has come out of local work like our graphic arts folks, our bankers, and our legal side. Our manufacturing is done in Nixa at Airemaster and they will be doing our mixing and bottle-filling,” said Huckfeldt.

Huckfeldt says while the product will released locally at first, plans are underway to ultimately take the product nationwide. The name of the product is “Hands First.” For KSMU News, I’m Theresa Bettmann.

Written by Theresa Bettmann.

Shah, a St. John's plastic surgeon, has come up with a new way to wire a patient's jaw shut that is being developed by Inveno Health, which is the commercialization arm of St. John's Medical Research Institute. The new jaw wiring should be available within a year.

Inveno Health was established in 2009 with a grant from the Missouri Life Science Trust Fund, says Matt Price, operations manager. Inveno Health helps with the research, manufacture, marketing and distribution of products that are created by St. John's medical experts, like Shah.

Jaw wiring

The new jaw wiring method — which uses plastic instead of stainless steel — is safer for patients and medical staff, Shah says.

When a jaw is wired shut, the wires are literally twisted by hand and the wires can poke through a medical glove and cut staff, exposing them to bacteria and diseases such as HIV.

"It puts us at risk," Shah says.

The new method is more like braces that hold the jaw in position and clip together.

"It gives the same stability without the wires," he says.

When a patient's jaw is wired shut, if they have to vomit, which can happen after anesthesia, the patient has to have someone cut their wires with wire cutters. The new plastic device can be severed with household scissors.

There's a comfort issue, too. "It's like having a mouth full of barbed wire," he says of the old method.

The idea for this came to him in 2001, but he didn't pursue it because inventions are complicated and can be expensive to develop.

Once Inveno Health came along, which gives doctors a platform for their inventions, he pursued it.

And he hasn't stopped there.

Another one of his inventions, a bed used to secure an infant during surgery, will be ready for patient use by the end of June, and a prototype has already been used in surgery at the hospital.

This invention will significantly cut the time an infant has to be sedated during certain surgeries.

The longer he's a doctor, the more he recognizes problems and thinks, "I can't believe we don't have something to make this easier."

And there are more ideas in the works.

"Now I can't stop," he laughs. "They (staff at Inveno Health) get a text from me saying 'I have another idea.'"

Inveno Health

Keela Davis, technical research director, says developing a product is a continual process, but it starts with a good idea and a solution to a problem.

Once the medical expert explains their vision, the Inveno team begins the research: they see what's been published, if there is a similar product or an existing patent, where it can be manufactured, pricing and if the product will work.

If they decide to develop the product, they meet with engineers and scientists to develop a prototype. Then, they work on tests, more prototypes and patents.

The doctor or inventor is constantly involved in this process, and they work as a team so there are no surprises at the end, says Shah.

Inveno Health will either sell the product or find a company to license and sell it for them.

Finally, a product has to go through FDA approval, so getting a product on the market is a lengthy process, explains Price.

They have 20 active products in development with 30 others waiting to be developed, and products run the gamut, Davis says.

"The market is coming to us," Price says. "The nice thing about this is there is already a problem and solution, so you know there is a need for the product they're introducing to the market. With other products, you have a product and hope there is need or people will buy it."

The concept of Inveno Health is somewhat unusual, though something similar is available at The Cleveland Clinic and a few other places, says Davis.

It's an excellent resource for doctors and other health care professionals who see needs in health care settings and are now able to introduce solutions to address those needs, Shah says.

BY JULIANA GOODWIN/The Springfield News-Leader

Dr. Roger Huckfeldt, medical director of St. John’s Health System, says the big selling point is you are less likely to re-contaminate. He says, with most hand sanitizers, you kill germs on contact but quickly re-contaminate your hands when you touch something else. Huckfeldt says Hands First provides, basically, a thin film that will eliminate re-contamination.

The product hits store shelves locally on Aug. 23, then goes nationwide in just a few more weeks. Huckfeldt says there's no need to apply this one multiple times; one time every three hours or so will do the trick.

"Whether you touch a keyboard, a pencil, shake another person's hands -- you're re-contaminated with bacteria. Other products say they last four to six hours but really what they do is protect you from re-growth of bacteria. They don't protect you from re-contamination. We wanted a product that you didn't have to reapply so often,” he said.

Huckfeldt says he worked on the product for a year and just got Food and Drug Administration approval last week.

It will be in Price Cutter, Grove Pharmacy, Family Pharmacy, Fox Grape and a few other stores. It costs about the same as any other brand of hand sanitizer.

Not too long ago, the risk of alcohol poisoning with hand sanitizers was a big problem for young kids. Huckfeldt says this product is safe and non-toxic, with no alcohol, and was tested safe for both babies and elderly people, even if kids somehow ingested it.

http://www.ky3.com/news/local/Doctor-in-Springfield-MO-gets-FDA-okay-to-sell-new-hand-sanitizer-100629824.html

By Sara Forhertz, KY3 News