What is the name of your organization?
Rice360 Institute for Global Health Technologies
What is the name of your solution?
Neonatal Gastric Suction
Provide a one-line summary or tagline for your solution.
Affordable newborn gastric suction for low-resource settings without the need for proprietary tubing or vacuum infrastructure
In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
Houston, TX, USA
In what country is your solution team headquartered?
United States
What type of organization is your solution team?
Nonprofit
Film your elevator pitch.
What specific problem are you solving?
Gastric suction is a medical treatment required for newborns suffering from multiple gastrointestinal conditions, including necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), gastroschisis, and intestinal obstruction. Between 2-13% of preterm infants globally suffer from NEC, which has a mortality rate as high as 50%. When left untreated, these conditions cause complications like aspiration pneumonia, which can lead to longer lengths of hospital stays, higher hospital costs, and unnecessary death.
There is a significant disparity in gastric suction practices around the world. In high-resource settings, gastric suction safely and effectively removes excessive stomach fluid using the hospital’s centralized vacuum systems, intermittent wall regulators, and proprietary consumables called Salem Sump tubing. However, vacuum infrastructure alone costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. Additionally, Salem Sump tubes are costly, single-use, and often unavailable in many low-resource settings (LRS).
Alternatively, LRS clinicians use improvised solutions for gastric suction, such as passive gravity drainage using syringes and commonly available nasogastric (NG) tubes. However, these solutions pose an increased risk of aspiration and a high burden on caregivers. Thus, there is a need for a gastric suction solution appropriate for low-resource settings that is safe, effective, sustainable, and affordable.
What is your solution?
Leveraging established collaborations with clinicians and surgeons in the Dominican Republic, Kenya, and the USA, alongside engineers at Rice360, we have developed a low-cost portable gastric suction device and a consumable solution to provide low-resource communities with a quality healthcare intervention for newborn gastrointestinal conditions.
The suction machine is based on technology from a commercial breast pump, which already produces low and intermittent negative pressure. A microcontroller electronically controls the pressure level of the pump and allows the user to adjust suction modes, including both continuous and intermittent suction. The components are contained in a portable enclosure for easy transport and use. A collection canister with a filter collects the stomach effluent and prevents contamination of the vacuum source.
The consumable solution utilizes two NG tubes readily available in hospitals in LRS, such as Kenya and the Dominican Republic. One tube is connected to suction and the other is left open to vent. This set-up mimics the behavior of the gold standard proprietary Salem Sump tube by similarly preventing the tubing eyelets from adhering to the stomach wall, thereby reducing the risk of damage while instead maintaining a low cost.
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
Our solution for neonatal gastric suction serves sick newborn patients, clinicians and caregivers, and hospitals.
Sick Newborns: Each year, approximately 3.4 million neonates require gastric suction to help treat a variety of gastrointestinal conditions. If left untreated, these neonates would not survive from complications like aspiration. In low-resource settings where gastric suction is not well-practiced, a safe and effective solution would significantly increase the likelihood of survival.
Clinicians and Caregivers: Current solutions in LRS of passive gastric suction involve manually using a syringe to remove stomach fluid and require constant supervision, causing an excessive burden on nurses and occasionally parents. Our device, with features specifically designed for ease-of-use and automatic operation, would significantly reduce workload for nurses and caregivers while providing reliable information on accurate and safe pressure levels.
Hospitals: Many hospitals in LRS are unable to afford the installation and maintenance of centralized vacuum systems. Portable gastric suction machines on the market are a feasible alternative, but they can cost thousands of dollars. Our current prototype, with an estimated cost of <$250, offers a cost-effective alternative. Our consumable solution uses readily available NG tubes rather than proprietary Salem Sump tubing, significantly reducing overall costs for hospitals.
