Linear Health Sciences Announces Issuance of First US Patent
January 24, 2018
OKLAHOMA CITY, Jan. 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — 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™, a patient safety device designed to help prevent intravenous (IV) catheter dislodgement.
US Patent No. 9,861,805 B2 covers wide-ranging claims behind the tension-activated safety release valve 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.
