A novel air microfluidics technology - enabling active compression apparels for treating lymphedema, edema and muscle recovery for strenuous work and exercise

一种新颖的空气微流体技术——使主动压缩服装能够治疗淋巴水肿、水肿和剧烈工作和运动时的肌肉恢复

• 批准号: 560618-2021
• 负责人: Ren, Carolyn
• 金额: $ 9.11万
• 依托单位: University of Waterloo
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Idea to Innovation
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2021-01-01 至 2022-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=723912
• 关键词: novel; air; microfluidics; technology; enabling

Breast cancer related lymphedema. dependent edema, a secondary condition in individuals with spinal cord injury, and muscle injuries due to strenuous work/heavy exercise affect millions of people every year by diminishing the quality of life. Medical treatments for these problems are expensive often involving manual massaging the affected limb to help reduce tissue swelling and improve blood circulation followed by bandaging further reducing swelling or lifting the muscle. It is in high demand to develop affordable at-home compression therapy such as wearable systems with intermittent pneumatic compression mimicking the manual massaging. The global compression therapy market was valued at USD 3.1 billion in 2019 and USD 4.2 billion by 2025. The state-of-the-art technologies present trade-offs between performance, affordability and portability due to the need for the same number of electromechanical valves as the air bladders for compression.This research team has developed a novel air microfluidics powered technology which is capable of addressing the trade-off dilemma. The core technology is a microfluidic chip with a network of micro- and mini-channels enabling sequential inflation of an array of air bladder actuators which can be integrated into apparels to actively pressurize the affected limb. Feedback from our external partners including Haley Rehab, Praxis Spinal Cord Institute, Myant Inc. and the Armoury Sports Medicine suggest the need for individual control of the air bladders with a pressure-holding feature, which will be one of the key objectives for the proposed project together with other improvements such as optimizing the chip for slow and fast compression, increasing the system durability and streamlining production to reduce cost. Preliminary testing of these proposed improvements in promising applications (treatment/management of lymphedema and musculoskeletal conditions) will be performed in collaboration with our partners/potential customers. The results of the planned beta trials and application testing will help establish target market vertical(s), timing of a possible startup company's creation, and a go-to-market strategy.

乳腺癌相关性水肿。依赖性水肿是脊髓损伤个体的继发性疾病，以及由于剧烈工作/剧烈运动引起的肌肉损伤每年通过降低生活质量而影响数百万人。这些问题的医疗费用昂贵，通常涉及手动按摩受影响的肢体，以帮助减少组织肿胀和改善血液循环，然后进行包扎，进一步减少肿胀或提升肌肉。开发负担得起的家用压缩疗法（诸如具有模仿手动按摩的间歇性气动压缩的可穿戴系统）的需求很高。2019年全球压缩疗法市场价值为31亿美元，到2025年将达到42亿美元。由于需要与压缩气囊相同数量的机电阀，最先进的技术在性能、经济性和便携性之间进行权衡。该研究小组开发了一种新型的空气微流体动力技术，能够解决权衡困境。其核心技术是一种微流控芯片，具有微通道和迷你通道网络，能够对一系列气囊致动器进行顺序充气，这些致动器可以集成到服装中，以主动对患肢加压。来自外部合作伙伴的反馈，包括Haley Rehab、Praxis Spinal Cord Institute、Myant Inc.和Armoury Sports Medicine提出，需要单独控制具有压力保持功能的气囊，这将是拟议项目的主要目标之一，以及其他改进，例如优化芯片以实现慢速和快速压缩，增加系统耐用性和简化生产以降低成本。将与我们的合作伙伴/潜在客户合作，在有前景的应用（水肿和肌肉骨骼疾病的治疗/管理）中对这些拟议的改进进行初步测试。计划中的beta测试和应用程序测试的结果将有助于建立垂直目标市场，可能的初创公司创建的时间以及进入市场的战略。