Recently, the March of Dimes gave the U.S. a grade of D relative to premature birth rates. Not one state received a letter grade of A, and only one received a B. Today, approximately 12 percent of those born, or more than 530,000 infants, arrive prematurely into this world with a host of breathing, feeding and developmental problems.
A small biomedical company in Shawnee is tackling breathing and feeding problems head-on with a new device that received the FDA’s approval in February 2008 for use in correcting non-nutritive sucking in premature babies.
KBA support is helping KC BioMediX bring to market the NTrainer System, derived from research done by Dr. Steven Barlow, professor of speech, language and hearing and director of communications for neuroscience laboratories at the University of Kansas.
More than 15 years in the making, the NTrainer employs a two-stage process whereby the infant’s ability to suck — a building block for infants’ healthy development — is measured, and then a prescribed therapy is instituted. It provides the preemie, for the first time, with a synthetic suck pattern to mimic. The assessment and therapy is delivered through a small, hand-held device called the Soothie pacifier.
The NTrainer System is groundbreaking for two reasons. First, the assessment mode provides clinicians, neonatal nurses and doctors with quantifiable information about the infant’s readiness to feed. Previously, only subjective assessments were possible. Second, by reinforcing the infant’s ability to suck, the NTrainer improves the readiness of the infant to feed, which eliminates the reliance on tube feeding in the early days of the preemie’s life. The infant’s inability to orally feed is one of the reasons for extended hospital stays in premature infant cases, and the NTrainer offers unique capabilities to the healthcare market to address this issue.
KC BioMediX was started by two Kansans who recognized potential and subsequently commercialized research done at a Kansas university. KBA support is helping keep R&D breakthroughs in the state by supporting commercialization here at home.