Critically ill newborn babies and children will soon have access to better care through a ground-breaking medical device being developed by a local start-up.
Industry and Innovation Minister Ben Carroll announced a $700,000 Breakthrough Victoria investment in start-up Navi Medical Technologies to further develop its Neonav ECG Tip Location System and secure regulatory approvals to get it to market – increasing the number of jobs at its Melbourne base to up to 30.
The Neonav ECG Tip Location System guides clinicians to correctly insert central venous catheters into the veins of critically ill babies and children to deliver treatments such as heart rate monitoring and blood transfusions.
Currently, almost half of these procedures result in life-threatening complications in newborn babies due to insertion error or the catheter migrating. The technology developed by Navi is non-invasive and goes onto the end of an existing catheter, showing in real-time whether its placement is correct.
The technology can also be used to check if a catheter has migrated and is posing a life-threatening risk to the paediatric patient – like fluid building up around the heart, an irregular heartbeat or blood clot.
Breakthrough Victoria chair John Brumby said all too often innovative technology like Navi Medical Technologies is sent offshore for development.
“… one of our goals is to invest in early-stage companies like Navi Medical Technologies to help them navigate the valley of death and see this sort of life changing technology commercialised in Victoria,” he said.
