What is the name of your organization?
Sisu Global Health
What is the name of your solution?
Hemafuse System
Provide a one-line summary or tagline for your solution.
An autotransfusion device that provides blood for patients anywhere there is a surgeon
In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
Baltimore, MD, USA
In what country is your solution team headquartered?
United States
What type of organization is your solution team?
For-profit, including B-Corp or similar models
Film your elevator pitch.
What specific problem are you solving?
Blood is a precious resource. The US Red Cross states every 2 seconds a patient needs blood for essential surgeries, cancer treatment, chronic illnesses, and traumatic injuries. In emerging markets, there is a severe shortage of blood. Every year in Kenya 5,000 women die due to complications before or after giving birth. 2,000 of them die due to excessive blood loss. This is the impact of a 60% blood shortage in Kenya. Within humanitarian crises, the situation is even more dire. In South Sudan, the country's need for blood was deemed 75 times greater than its supply. All major surgeries are supposed to have 2 units of blood on hand before they start. Blood delivery companies are on the rise to better distribute blood (Zipline Across several African countries), but don't solve the underlying shortage of donor blood. For cases of internal bleeding surgeons can capture, filter, and re-transfuse blood during surgery back to the same patient(autotransfusion). We do this in the US; Johns Hopkins studies show your own blood is better than someone else's. US/European equipment isn't suited to emerging markets or humanitarian settings due to high cost, specialized personnel, and power requirements.
What is your solution?
Hemafuse System is an autotransfusion device that suctions whole blood from the surgical field, filters it, and pushes it directly into a blood bag to be retransfused. Hemafuse can collect up to 3 blood bags per 1 patient within minutes which is critical especially for massive hemorrhage cases. This autologous whole blood containing red cells, platelets, and plasma can then be immediately re-transfused back to the same patient while eliminating the risks associated with donor blood transfusion (allergic reactions, viral infection etc). The unique, patented, device features are design elements that protect the integrity of the red blood cells. These designs increase surface area, decrease pressures, and maintain laminar (smooth) flow.
Any surgical staff including theater nurses and technicians are easily trained to set up and use Hemafuse with no specialized staff required. It’s quick to assemble and can collect a blood bag in less than 10 minutes for most users. Donor blood usually requires up to 45 minutes of time to perform cross matching before transfusing the patient.
Hemafuse is becoming the standard of care for access to blood in surgical cases that have internal bleeding and has been used effectively across general surgery, orthopedic, cardiothoracic, and ob/gyn surgeries.
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
Hemafuse System is a surgical device that is operated with a simple push and pull of a handle like a big syringe and without any electricity required. Anywhere there’s a surgeon, Hemafuse can provide blood for surgical patients especially those with massive internal bleeding where minutes can make the difference. Patients don’t have to wait for screening, typing and distribution of blood bags from the lab, because Hemafuse is assembled and ready to collect blood within minutes to re-transfusion. We have seen donor blood be sent back to the lab by the surgical staff because Hemafuse has already collected 2 units (1L) that were ready for transfusion. A majority of donor blood in emerging markets is used in maternal health cases and Hemafuse has been used in hospitals where they have seen a reduction in maternal mortality. A surgeon in rural Kenya had no donor blood within 100km of the hospital where a patient was a hemorrhaging woman, and he used Hemafuse to provide lifesaving blood. Hemafuse increases the overall blood supply in the hospital when used consistently for all types of surgical cases thus reserving the limited donor blood supply for patients outside of surgery.
