NASA Portable Hyperbaric Chamber Technology Finds Home on Earth
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WASHINGTON -- NASA has signed a patent license agreement with a
California company to improve the medical community's access to
hyperbaric chambers used to treat many medical conditions and
emergencies. OxyHeal Medical Systems Inc. of National City, Calif.,
will develop new products based on technologies NASA originally
developed for space.
Hyperbaric chambers create an environment in which the atmospheric
pressure of oxygen is increased above normal levels. The high
concentrations of oxygen can reduce the size of gas bubbles in the
blood and improve blood flow to oxygen-starved tissues.
"These technologies will allow OxyHeal to develop new products capable
of providing life-saving treatments and care to patients in remote
areas that may not have access to large, fixed-site hyperbaric
chamber facilities," said Ted Gurnee, president of OxyHeal.
Additionally, the company is working on solutions that involve large
portable hyperbaric chambers for possible use in treatment of
disaster victims.
The partially exclusive patent license agreement allows the company to
use three technologies developed at NASA's Johnson Space Center in
Houston that are associated with inflatable spacecraft modules and
portable hyperbaric chambers.
NASA developed the technologies as part of a program to plan for how
astronauts in space might be treated for decompression sickness.
Decompression sickness, commonly called "the bends," can occur in
astronauts as they undergo pressure changes returning from spacewalks
and in divers as they return to the water's surface.
In addition to treating decompression sickness, hyperbaric chamber
therapy on Earth also commonly provides treatment for carbon monoxide
poisoning, crush injuries, healing problem wounds, soft tissue
infections, significant blood loss and other ailments.
The NASA inventors of the portable hyperbaric chamber, Dr. James
Locke, William Schneider and Horacio de la Fuente, recently were
recognized by the Federal Laboratory Consortium with a Notable
Technology Development Award.
"NASA has a long history of making space-aged technologies available
for commercialization, creating new markets that power the economy,"
said Michele Brekke, director of the Innovation Partnership Program
Office at Johnson. "These commercial products and services, known as
'spinoffs,' allow the taxpayers to benefit from space exploration."
For more information about NASA's Innovative Partnerships Program
Office, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/offices/
