Project description
A disruptive, simple solution saving lives
Cardiac arrests can be fatal if not treated immediately. In many cases, airway obstruction could even be the cause of the arrest, requiring a suction device to clear it. Current suction devices are heavy, bulky, time-consuming to use and require extensive cleaning. Therefore, paramedics do not often carry them to a scene, which potentially puts a patient’s life at even more risk. The EU-funded FS-UNIT project set out to take EXCITUS AS’s FS-UNIT portable suction – a lightweight, easy-to-use, instant functioning unit – to TRL 9 with the aim of launching it into the market by 2022.
Objective
Excitus is an award-winning high-tech health start-up set to disrupt the pre-hospital emergency care market by providing a lightweight, easy-to-use, instantly functioning portable medical suction device.
Sudden out-of-hospital cardiac arrests remain are highly lethal, with 9 out of 10 of the 350,000 EU cases ending in death. When a person’s heart stops, fast response is needed. Many times, fluid such as vomit clog up a person’s airway during a cardiac arrest, and so it is standard practice for ambulances to carry suction devices to clear airways. Prompt airway clearing can increase survivability in trauma cases by as much as 10%, yet current portable suction devices are not designed with a paramedic-centric view. Instead, they are heavy, bulky, difficult and time consuming to use, requiring both hands for operation and extensive cleaning afterwards. Resultantly, paramedics do not carry them to the scene at first response, thereby compromising the patients’ lives.
Having worked for the world’s largest supplier of emergency care pre-hospital medical devices for decades, we were disappointed by the lack of innovation and user-centric design. We imagined a scenario were paramedics would enjoy using portable suction devices. After widely consulting with paramedics, physicians and Emergency Services operators, we created a completely new handheld design applying advanced mechatronics to deliver a suction device that is 85% lighter than current products whilst achieving the required life-saving performance.
We have received the support of the largest private ambulance providers in Europe and the US and are currently creating a global distribution network. The market for medical suction devices is growing to just under €1bn by 2024 with one of the key drivers being the demand for compact portable medical devices.
Our Vision is to be the market leader in this sector achieving cumulative sales of €68M by 2026 with an ROI 8.4 with total required investment of €2.5M.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1Coordinator
4044 HAFRSFJORD
Norway
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.