Technologies Available for Licensing

Medical Devices

The Multicatheter Infusion System uses a cannula fitted with multiple catheters that are secured in surrounding wound site tissue for the purposes of delivering anesthetics to the site over a longer period of time.

Clinical Need: Current methods of anesthetic drug delivery to a wound site use multiple, divided injections into tissue surrounding the wound, having a limited period of effectiveness. There is a need for a system that provides longer-term pain relief using fewer injections.

Legal Status: Patent Pending (US2017/0361063 A1)

Medical Devices

The Interosseous Fixation Device is a coupling mechanism for joining two bones or bone segments with a tether by placing an anchor in each bone and threading the tether from one through the other; obtaining tension in the tether (compressing the bones) via a "zip-tie" or ratcheting type mechanism.

Clinical Need: Joints such as the wrist and ankle have complex bone and ligamentous structures.  Ruptures of the scapholunate ligament of the wrist are common and often require the coupling of the lunate and scaphoid carpal bones to be restored in order to restore natural joint motion and stability.  Current procedures involve complex techniques, such as using an autograft transplant to replace the ligament between these two carpal bones.

Legal Status: Patent Pending (PCT/US2020/024283)

Medical Devices

The Bi-Directional Bone Lengthening System is an intramedullary nail implant containing an internal magnet and screw mechanism that, when excited by an external magnetic solenoid system, can be rotated to non-surgically lengthen the implant.

Clinical Need: Limb lengthening procedures often use either external fixators that require intrusive, complicated frames to lengthen the bone or internal nail implants that require a surgical procedure whenever the length of the nail must be adjusted. The Bi-Directional Bone Lengthening System enables non-invasive lengthening of the limb (after initial procedure).

Legal Status: Patent Issued (US 7,753,915 B1)

Medical Devices

The Patient Turn Assist Device is a portable ratchet mechanism and sling design that attaches to the side rail of a hospital bed, invented to aid in turning and holding patients in bed. This invention can provide reduced stress on the care giver, a reduction in the number of needed care-giver resources, and improvement in patient comfort.

Clinical Need: Traditionally, turning a patient over in bed is a 2-person job, as the patient must not only be turned onto their side, but also held in place for cleaning, changing sheets, applying medication, etc. Additionally, in an era of increasing patient obesity, turning some patients in bed can increase incidents of care giver injury and stress.

Legal Status: Patent Issued (US10,583,057 B2)

Medical Devices

Clinicians: Robert Hotchkiss, MD; Mark Figgie, MD
Engineers: Dan Choi, MEng; Joseph Lipman, MS

A combination drug and device product that provides a sustained and controlled local release of therapeutics to bones and joint spaces.

Legal Status: Patent Issued (US 7,976,858)

Medical Devices

Clinicians: Chitranjan Ranawat, MD; David Mayman, MD
Engineer: Joseph Lipman, MS

A patient-specific guide for the surgeon to provide accurate alignment of an acetabular component. In surgery, correct positioning of implants with respect to the patient's anatomy is often a critical factor in achieving a successful outcome. During a total hip replacement, proper implantation of the acetabular cup is challenging. This system takes into account the patient's pelvic position on the operating table, degenerative lumbosacral disease, pelvic tilt, and the presence of osteophytes.

Legal Status: Patents Issued (US 9,011,456; US 9,408,617)

Medical Devices

Clinician: Geoffrey Westrich, MD
Engineer: Joseph Lipman, MS

Patient-specific tibial cutting guides for unicompartmental knee replacement to ensure correct orientation of the component.

Legal Status: Patent Pending (US 2015/0088143)

Medical Devices

Clinicians: Robert Hotchkiss, MD
Engineers: Joseph Lipman, MS

Current external fixation technology includes static and hinged fixation systems. A drawback with static systems is that the joint becomes stiff without motion. It can also be difficult to dismantle and reassemble for post-operative mobilization. Hinged devices are challenging to apply and, unless used on a frequent basis, can require long operative time. The complexity of these devices had limited widespread adoption, resulting in inadequate treatment and poor outcomes. The inventors developed a simplified device to maintain joint motion. The device can be easily locked in an original position and then unlocked during rehabilitation. Following a rehabilitation episode, the device can be relocked to stabilize the joint and permit healing.

Legal Status: Patent Issued (US 8,323,281)

Medical Devices

Clinician: Friedrich Boettner, MD
Engineer: Joseph Lipman, MS

Set of instruments and guides for use in femoroacetabular surgical/arthroscopic procedures.

Legal Status: Patent Issued (US 9,119,644); Patent Pending (US 2016/0022255)

Medical Devices

Clinician: J. Albert Diaz, MD

A bone anchor, featuring a hollow interior and large graft windows, for coupling tissue, such as tendons and ligaments, to bone as part of a tenodesis or ligament reconstructive surgery. It offers fast, satisfying, soft tissue fixation within a bony socket with the additional benefit of reversible fine-tuning of graft tension.

Clinical Need: There remains a need for devices and methods that overcome the shortfalls of conventional techniques and allow surgeons to efficiently and reliably affix and tension tissue within a bony socket.

Legal Status: Patent Pending (PCT/US2021/013691)

Medical Devices

Engineer: Carl Imhauser, PhD

The Pivot Shifter and Linkage Device quantitatively and objectively measures the 3D displacements of the knee joint in response to multidirectional loads in a clinical setting. The clinical standard in diagnosing knee injury and assessing knee reconstruction has remained an anterior stability exam, either done manually or with the use of an arthrometer. Current arthrometers fail to characterize the effect of knee injury and reconstruction.

Legal Status: Patent Issued (US 9,566,022 | US10,198,968 | US10,667,746)

Medical Devices

Developer: William Rodriguez

Overview: Degradable suture sac for retention of platelet-rich-plasma (PRP) at the surgical site.

In conventional practice, surgical sites, whether they are arthroscopic, endoscopic or open surgery, are closed via sutures or staples. It is also known that certain biological products aid in the healing and regenerative process of such surgical sites. To take advantage of this, conventional practice is to coat or cover standard sutures with biological products to deliver these biologics to the surgical site. However, such a method of delivering biologics to a surgical site does not result in an effective amount of biological material being delivered, nor does it provide a means to deliver additional biologics after suturing, or the ability to adequately deliver high viscous biological compounds. 

Technology: The invention is designed to transport protein rich plasma (PRP) and/or mineral rich compounds that have been enhanced for use in regenerative procedures and/or antibiotics to specific sites determined by the surgical team. 

The delivery vehicle is made of a flexible porous film container that is designed to hold a biological material. The container is moveable between an open position and a closed position, a first compartment in fluid communication with the access, and a second compartment in fluid communication with the access; a filter covering the access; and a fastener for securing the sterile flexible porous film container adjacent to the surgical site, wherein the sterile flexible porous film container is moveable between open and closed positions via the fastener.
 

Legal Status: Patent issued (US10,213,364)

Medical Devices

Clinicians: Roger Widmann, MD; Helene Pavlov, MD
Developers: Howard Hillstrom, PhD; Arkady Blyakher; John Denneen, MS; Andrew Kraszewski, MS; Mark Lenhoff; Edward White

Cost-effective, patient positioning table and techniques that is capable of supporting a patient in one or more medically relevant positions.

Legal Status: Patent Issued (US 8,782,832)

Medical Devices

Engineers: Joseph Lipman, MS; Donald Bartel, PhD; Timothy Wright, PhD

Novel revision knee system with unique geometries for additional stability.

Legal Status: Patent Issued (US 8,900,315)

Medical Devices

Clinician: Andrew Pearle, MD
Engineers: Darrick Lo, MEng; Joseph Lipman, MS

Shoulder hemiarthroplasty is commonly used to treat patients with glenohumeral joint arthrosis. Patient specific instruments carry surfaces and features that facilitate implantation and correct alignment of shoulder implant components. The surgeon uses the instruments to align and direct surgical cuts, to prepare the patient to receive standard or reverse joint implant components.

Legal Status: Patent Issued (US 9,579,106)

Medical Devices

Clinicians: William Rodriguez, Riley Williams, MD

Overview: OrthoKnot is a deployable all-suture alternative to existing suture fixation mechanisms. OrthoKnot uses only a suture fiber composed of a series of knots which can be linked together to form a cluster of knots that anchors to the bone.

Clinical Problem: There is a need for bone-based fixation of soft tissue structures in many common Sports Medicine procedures, including repair or reconstruction of the ACL, meniscus, rotator cuff and labrum. Conventional fixation devices such as suture screws, anchors, buttons, and pins, are made of metal. Such metal anchors add additional costs to the surgery and are visible to patients on X-rays. Any ill-placement or dissociation of these anchors would also be apparent on films.
 

Legal Status: Patent Issued (US 10,314,575)

Medical Devices

Clinicians: Ogonna Kenechi Nwawka, MD
Engineers: Daniel Sturnick, MS

Overview: The constant force probe handle is a device designed to standardize and directly control contact force at the transducer-patient interface. The handle allows the transducer head to displace along a low-friction path separately from the operator’s hand position while maintaining a constant force applied by the spring, independent of operator’s hand position.  The design is 100% mechanical and is comprised of a spring and pulley system within an outer casing.

Clinical Problem: Ultrasound technology is widely used in the field of medicine in both diagnosis and treatment. An ultrasound protocol growing in popularity is shear wave elasticity, which can assess the mechanical properties of tissue (e.g., stiffness) and has been used in the diagnosis of liver fibrosis, breast cancer, and, recently, various musculoskeletal tissue pathologies. One challenge faced is that outcomes of ultrasound diagnostics, particularly evident in shear wave elastography, is sensitive to the applied force between the sonographer and the subject. This leads to variability within an exam and difficulty in reproducing the same results in a subsequent exam, particularly if performed by a different sonographer. For example, in liver fibrosis detection, the apparent morphology and stiffness outcomes from shear wave imaging of the fibrosis are affected by the pressure imparted by the operator on the probe and could lead to a misdiagnosis or a false positive.

Technology: The constant force probe handle is a device designed to standardize and directly control contact force at the transducer-patient interface. The handle allows the transducer head to displace along a low-friction path separately from the operator’s hand position while maintaining a constant force applied by the spring, independent of operator’s hand position.  The design is 100% mechanical and is composed of a spring and pulley system within an outer casing.

The handle permits control of a wide range of applied forces by use of interchangeable constant force springs with various specifications, allowing the clinical use case to dictate what target force control is required. The invention is intended to accommodate constant force spring specifications ranging from anywhere from sub-Newton loads to hundreds of Newtons.
Differentiation: While there is no known commercially available controlled-force probe handle, there have been inventions conceived in this space that utilize an external control module. The key differentiator of the CF Probe is that it is mechanical in nature and does not require a feedback loop between the measured force and the actuator that responds to the measured force. The CF Probe is a simpler, more intuitive and reliable solution that requires no electric components or calibration.

Proposed Application/Integration: The CF Probe can be integrated with any ultrasound system. The patent covers designs where an external handle enclosure surrounds an existing probe and where the mechanism controlling the force is incorporated inside a probe. As there are no actuators or instrumentation that need to be incorporated, the exterior handle enclosure grip can be designed to be ergonomic so the examiner may perform examinations with comfort and consistency.
 

Legal Status: Patent pending (PCT Application: WO 2018/119127 A2)

Medical Devices

Clinicians: Struan Coleman, MD; Lawrence Gulotta, MD

Surgical repair of damaged tendon to bone is not always successful. This novel patch design and instrumentation for arthroscopic rotator cuff repair provide for augmentation of healing with the addition of (platelet-rich plasma) PRP or stem cells to the patch. Instrumentation includes a suture guided patch delivery tool.

Legal Status: Patent Issued (US10,675,016).

Medical Devices

Developer: William Rodriguez

Clinical Problem: In arthroscopic hip surgery, there is a need to provide feedback to the surgeon about anatomic position in the absence of direct visual and tactile feedback. The current invention improves about the haptic feedback of arthroscopic surgical tools.

Technology: The device features a telescopic shaft which is attached to a handle on the distal end and a blade coupler on the proximal end.  There is a spring between the handgrip and the blade, whereby when force is a supplied to compress the spring, there is a visual feedback in the form of a displacement guide in the hand grip.

Legal Status: Patent Issued (US 9,113,942)