Local San Antonio startup focused on enhancing airway management is granted AFWERX Direct-to-Phase II (D2P2) Open Topic award
EmergenceMed, LLC is pleased to announce the United States Air Force AFWERX Program funded a Direct-to-Phase II (D2P2) critical care project aiming to enhance prolonged field care and enroute care for military and civilian first responders. Suction: Combat Ready Advanced Multifunctional Machine (SCRAMM) will enable frontline workers with a multifunctional suction unit capable of addressing airway management, burn wounds, hemorrhage control, and surgical suction. This 21-month project provides $1.25 Million in funding towards EmergenceMed, the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), and other local collaborators to develop and test a proof-of-concept platform. AFWERX, a Technology Directorate of the Air Force Research Laboratory and the innovation arm of the Department Air Force, promotes innovation through Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants. The AFWERX SBIR program is competitive and allows US small businesses to work with the government, including DoD and other agencies, towards commercializing collaborative R&D projects. The open topics are intended for dual-use technologies with clear commercial and defense-market applicability.
EmergenceMed, LLC is a University of Texas spin-off technology startup with a focus on developing solutions to solve critical problems in emergency care, trauma, and in combat casualties. The company’s first product is a highly portable yet powerful suction device that advances the state-of-the-art and allows individual EMS and combat medics to provide lifesaving suction in a lightweight powered and disposable device. Other innovations in the pipeline include an advanced-materials endotracheal tube that will dramatically improve the century-old technology while increasing the speed of intubation and reducing morbidity associated with old-fashioned plastic tubes. The company is also in the early stages of developing a multimodal suction unit that can serve multiple clinical indications in the continuum of care from prehospital phases to damage control surgery and critical care transport.
EmergenceMed consists of:
- Dr. Robert A. De Lorenzo, MD, President and Co-Founder, is a professor of emergency medicine at UT Health San Antonio (UTHSA), Vice Chair of Research for the Department of Emergency Medicine, and Adjoint Faculty Member in the Joint Graduate Program in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Texas at San Antonio & UTHSA. He has been board certified in emergency medicine for over 25 years and is retired from the US Army after a career spanning 32 years including two combat tours in Iraq.
- Dr. Lyle Hood, PhD, Vice-President and Co-Founder, is an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), and Adjoint Faculty Member at UT Health Department of Emergency Medicine. His research focuses on development of novel medical technologies with an emphasis on new platforms for airway management.
- Mr. Zach Fallon, BSME, Operations Manager, is an experienced mechanical engineer focused on product design, development, rapid prototyping, market competition analysis, and business modeling for entrepreneurial commercialization. He specializes in commercializing university academic research with a focus on bench-to-bedside biomedical and clinical applications.