OKLAHOMA CITY – Linear Health Sciences today announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued the company’s first patent related to its flagship product, the Orchid Safety Release Valve™.
US Patent No. 9,861,805 B2 covers wide-ranging claims behind the needless connector for use in medical access devices such as IV catheters.
“The patent issuance comes at an exciting time for our company, as many assets are evolving from speculative to tangible,” said founder and Chief Executive Officer Ryan Dennis, M.D. “The breadth of our claims allows us to develop safety technology solutions encompassing a variety of medical access devices.”
Treatment of hospitalized patients can require use of various medical access devices, including IV catheters, feeding tubes, surgical drains among others. These devices transport fluids to or from the patient and use a variety of flexible tubing to allow for patient movement. As a patient moves, the tubing can become overextended or tangled in bedrails and cause damage to the patient and/or the tubing.
IV catheter dislodgement is experienced daily in all hospitals. Up to 90 percent of hospital patients receive an IV, and clinical studies show that nearly 10 percent of those will become dislodged. Restarting a dislodged catheter can cost upwards of $30 each for staffing and equipment.
In a 2017 survey of nurses and vascular access specialists, nearly all respondents reported that their institutions considered IV dislodgement a safety risk.
“Looking to the future, Linear Health Sciences is strategically positioned to expand the intellectual property protection across multiple applications and around the globe,” said Dan Clark, President and COO. “Our company believes patients everywhere deserve the safety provided by our technology.”
The company partnered with Oklahoma City based legal firm, Crowe & Dunlevy on the successful patent.
About Linear Health Sciences
Founded by a physician and two engineers, Linear Health Sciences is the developer of the Orchid Safety Release Valve and other safety technology solutions for medical access devices. Those solutions are designed to improve the healthcare experience for patients, caregivers and healthcare institutions. The estimated market for the company’s technology is $1 billion annually. For more information, visit www.linearsciences.com.