Patent Issued for Method for Providing a Negative Pressure Wound Therapy Pump Device

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Journal of Engineering -- From Alexandria, Virginia, VerticalNews journalists report that a patent by the inventors Buan, John (Maple Grove, MN); Vierling, H. Philip (Hastings, MN), filed on November 18, 2011, was published online on June 16, 2015.

The patent's assignee for patent number 9058634 is Kalypto Medical, Inc. (Mendota Heights, MN).

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: "Negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) is one method of treating certain wounds or sores on people. In general, a specialty dressing (or bandage) is placed over a wound site, and connected to a pump system. The pump system provides suction, creating a negative pressure under the bandage at the wound site. Exudates and other materials are removed from the wound site under the influence of the negative pressure. The NPWT wound dressings are single patient use and purchased as needed.

"The pump systems, which at retail purchase are quite expensive, are generally leased from a medical device supply company (DME) to an 'end user' for the period of time necessary to heal the chronic wound, typically 6-8 weeks. The 'end-user' can either be a patient, whose insurance carrier makes the lease payments, or a 'facility,' such as a nursing home or hospital, which will lease the equipment on behalf of the patient. Given the relatively short term of use for any one patient, it does not make any financial sense for either a patient or a treating facility to own such equipment.

"The pumping devices are designed to be durable and capable of being reused across the care of multiple patients. However, being complex electromechanical systems, they can break down or otherwise fail, requiring both the end users and the leasing company to maintain a sufficient level of inventory. This can be both costly and require a large amount of space for both the leasing company and the end users.

"Moreover, given that the structural component of the system that performs the actual pumping of air, the pump, is believed to be the most likely element to fail in the pumping system, it would be beneficial for all interested parties, DME and end-users, to be able to employ a system that minimizes the cost associated with repairing and using these NPWT pumping systems, and otherwise avoid disposing of the functioning elements in the pumping device.

"The present invention is directed to resolving these and other matters."

As a supplement to the background information on this patent, VerticalNews correspondents also obtained the inventors' summary information for this patent: "In one embodiment of the invention, the invention is directed towards a method for providing a device to be used in association with a negative pressure wound therapy bandage including the steps of providing a controller module including a pressure sensor to a third party, providing a first pump module including a pump to the third party, providing a second pump module including a second pump to the third party, wherein the third party leases the controller module to an end user, and, wherein the controller module removably receives the first pump module and provides a first negative pressure treatment, and wherein after providing the first negative pressure treatment, the first pump module can be removed and the second pump module can be inserted into the controller module for providing a second negative pressure treatment.

"In an embodiment of the invention, the controller module, first pump module and second pump module are provided simultaneously. As used herein 'simultaneously' is intended to mean in the same transaction, and, preferably in the same shipment or package.

"In a further embodiment, a first case sized to cover the controller module and the first pump module received therein is provided and a second case sized to cover the controller module and the second pump module received therein is also provided. These may be provided simultaneously with each other, and may also be provided simultaneously with the pump modules.

"Yet another embodiment of the invention includes providing a third pump module including a third pump to the third party, and, providing a fourth pump module including a fourth pump to the third party. The can be provided simultaneously with the controller module, first pump module and second pump module. These can also be provided in association with cases, which may be provided simultaneously with the pump modules and/or the controller module.

"In still another embodiment of the present invention, the invention is directed to a method for providing a device to be used in association with a negative pressure wound therapy bandage by leasing a controller module including a pressure sensor to an end user, providing a first pump module including a pump to the end user, providing a second pump module including a second pump to the end user, wherein the end user utilizes the controller module and the first pump module to provide a first negative pressure treatment, wherein the controller module removably receives the first pump module, and wherein after providing the first negative pressure treatment, the first pump module can be removed and the second pump module can be inserted into the controller module for providing a second negative pressure treatment.

"As in other embodiments, cases may be provided with the pump modules. Further, the cases, pump modules and/or controller modules may be leased and/or provided simultaneously. In addition, additional pump modules may also be provided.

"Further, it is contemplated that in any of these embodiments, one or more negative pressure wound therapy bandages are provided to the third party in connection with the other devices.

"One of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that while the embodiments discusses providing a single controller module and various numbers of pump modules, the invention encompasses providing any number of controller modules and pump modules to the purchaser/end user.

"A method according to one or more embodiments of the present invention is believed to provide numerous benefits.

"One or more of the disclosed embodiments, would allow the end users that lease the controller units to have a large supply replaceable pump modules. If the pump module fails before, during, or after negative pressure wound therapy treatment, the end user can simply obtain another pump module its own inventory, switch out the pump modules, and begin/resume a second negative pressure wound therapy treatment.

"These methods would also benefit the individuals (people, companies, etc.) that supply the pump devices to the end users because they could also create a large inventory of pump modules to provide/sell to the end users. At the same time, they do not need to maintain such a large inventory of controller modules that are being leased to cover broken or otherwise non-functioning pump devices. In other words, with other systems, these suppliers would need enough of an inventory to cover a certain number of pump devices breaking down in the field. However, with one or more of the embodiments of the present invention, the supplies could minimize the amount of controller modules in inventory, and build up a larger supply of pump modules.

"Further, since the suppliers do not have to build such a large supply of controller modules, the suppliers can minimize their financial investment in a non-used inventory. In other words, the suppliers do not have to spend as much money on controller modules for inventory.

"Since the controller modules are intended to be used with different patients at different times, it is beneficial to provide disposable covers to minimize the spread of diseases, bodily fluids and otherwise promote general cleanliness in the health care environment.

"It is to be understood that the aspects and objects of the present invention described above may be combinable and that other advantages and aspects of the present invention will become apparent upon reading the following description of the drawings and detailed description of the invention."

For additional information on this patent, see: Buan, John; Vierling, H. Philip. Method for Providing a Negative Pressure Wound Therapy Pump Device. U.S. Patent Number 9058634, filed November 18, 2011, and published online on June 16, 2015. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=9058634.PN.&OS=PN/9058634RS=PN/9058634

Keywords for this news article include: Kalypto Medical Inc., Investment and Finance, Negative-Pressure Wound Therapy.

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