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ABM bets on connectivity

ABM bets on connectivity Company aims to have 'roadmap for the complete lung care of the patient'

EAGEN, Minn. – ABM Respiratory Care has made its debut in the U.S. respiratory market with the limited launch of its biWaze airway clearance system.

The company began shipping biWaze, which received clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last year, to customers in March, says Leah Noaeill, vice president of marketing.

“We’re meeting with physicians and respiratory therapists and showing them the device, and they’re excited,” she said.

ABM might be new to the market, but its management team and board of directors have years of experience in health care, including CEO Vinay Joshi, who previously held several roles with GE Healthcare and Hill-Rom, and board director Doug Harper, who previously held roles with NDC Homecare and Invacare.

biWaze, which helps people cough and mobilize mucus from the upper airways, aims to differentiate itself in the market with a dual-channel design that separates inhale and exhale airflow, as well as connected capabilities, which include remote control with a mobile app, company officials say.

“To see how the device is doing and how the therapy is going, the device comes with connectivity that ties into our portal,” Joshi said. “It doesn’t require a download or taking the device to the clinician.”

biWaze is only the first product in ABM’s “roadmap for the complete lung care of the patient,” Joshi says. It’s a roadmap that will also eventually include another airway clearance system (this one to help people expand their lower airways and provide oscillations to mobilize retained secretions from the lower to upper airways, where they can be coughed out) and a ventilator, which will again emphasize connectivity, he says.

“We want the vent and the airway clearance system to work intelligently together,” he said. “Our vision is, for example, that a caregiver doesn’t have to wake up in the middle of the night to do auto-suctioning of the patient. Our vision is that we can alleviate that and make the life of the patient and caregiver easier with an intelligent platform.”

To help solidify its position in the market, ABM in February was also conducting a study with a hospital to examine the advanced programming capabilities of the biWaze. Those capabilities allow 10 therapy profiles to be saved for patients to select when/where they need it.

“We would like to understand how different pressures and oscillation frequencies can help open airways and breakup mucus for people with different diseases states like ALS and muscular dystrophy,” Noaeill said.

 

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