Flomark: safer hospital infusions through pioneering devices and data analytics

Maintaining correct fluid balance is particularly important for patient recovery. However, 20% of patients receiving intravenous (IV) fluids suffer medical complications because of incorrect IV administration.

We will develop three innovations to address three pressing problems in fluid balance management.

1) Hospital drips

In 80% of all hospital admissions, a gravity administration set ("drip") is used to convey fluids directly into the patient's veins (infusion). But 85% of the time, the drip is used incorrectly, resulting in patients getting fluid too quickly or too slowly.

We have patented an improved drip, the **Flomark Consumable**. It is intuitive to use, more reliable, saves staff time, and is the same cost as state-of-art drips. We will seek regulatory approval, test and manufacture this product. No flow meter capable of measuring this flow range is currently available.

2) Infusion pumps

During many hospital infusions, an IV pump is used. Current pumps cannot sense how fast the fluid is flowing, and therefore must rely on expensive and heavy batteries and actuators to deliver fluid flow.

We will combine the Flomark Consumable with electronics to easily sense and regulate flow, creating the **Flomark Regulator**. This will be a fraction of the cost of a pump, be easier to use, and have fewer drawbacks. We aim to produce a pre-production prototype.

3) Fluid balance

In intensive care (ICU), fluid balance (a patient's fluid input compared with fluid output) is very important. Although intensive care is highly resourced, this is monitored and calculated manually, and done inaccurately 35% of the time. Unlike cardiac and respiratory monitoring, there is no real-time data feed for fluid input and output, despite its acknowledged importance.

We will modify the Flomark Consumable to measure fluid output (via a catheter), sensing this with the same Flomark Regulator design. This will allow accurate real time data to be produced for fluid _input and output_ for intensive care patients - a truly transformative step. Further to this, we will build software to analyse this data to predict potential patient harm (the **Flomark Software Platform**), and support informed clinical decisions and prescribing.

These three innovations will vastly improve efficiency and safety in fluid management. They will disrupt the current industry, provide improved products for less cost, and improve data and thus care, saving healthcare providers worldwide a huge amount of money.

**REFERENCES AVAILABLE ON REQUEST**