Physician ’s Device Puts a New Spin on Ultrasound

Five years ago, Steven Tropello, M.D., a critical care and emergency medicine physician, became frustrated with the limitations he had in placing feeding tubes in patients. Tropello saw numerous patients needing a simple G-tube insertion or replacement, who wound up staying multiple days in the hospital waiting for a specialist and an operating room. Tropello’s frustration led to the physician developing the Point-of-care Ultrasound Magnet Aligned (PUMA-G) System platform, a device that enables ultrasound-based placement of percutaneous gastrostomy feeding tubes. He also co-founded CoapTech, the company that markets the device. The Baltimore-based firm recently received a nod from FDA for the technology. “[Ultrasound] is a ubiquitous tool,” Tropello, who also serves as CoapTech’s CMO, told MD+DI. “When I had that moment of anger and frustration …I said what tool do colleagues like myself and specialists, have in our pocket to use to safely insert feeding tubes and use ultrasound. The idea could not have happened if ultrasound wasn’t  ubiquitous.” Conventional procedures to place feeding tubes typically require a surgical suite, additional specialty consultant providers, and expensive and invasive imaging. The PUMA-G System, allows physicians to place gastrostomy tubes at the point of care, using solely ultrasound imaging...
Source: MDDI - Category: Medical Devices Authors: Tags: Tubing Source Type: news