February 12, 2009

National Jewish Health Receives Patent for Joint-Aspiration Device

National Jewish Health has received a US patent for a device that National Jewish Health Professor of Medicine Richard Meehan, MD, designed to facilitate the aspiration and injection of joints.

Primary care physicians, orthopedists and rheumatologists routinely draw fluid out of joints to help them diagnose patients' problems. They also frequently inject medicine into joints. It can be tricky however, obtaining enough fluid, being certain the needle is in the right place, and protecting patients from pain.

Dr. Meehan's invention should make it easier to perform safe and less painful joint aspirations and injections. It consists of a flexible material that wraps around a joint. A bladder inside the material can be inflated to move fluid to an opening in the where fluid can be withdrawn or medication injected. An ultrasound probe may be attached and incorporated into the device to confirm fluid displacement into the targeted location.

National Jewish Health is actively seeking a commercial partner to develop this medical device.

National Jewish Summary of Device:

http://www.nationaljewish.org/research/IP-Tech-Comm/techsum07-02.aspx

US Patent # 7,468,048

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=7,468,048.PN.&OS=PN/7,468,048&RS=PN/7,468,048

CONTACT:

Emmanuel Hillaire
(303) 398-1262
hilairee@njc.org