J.M. Hartfiel Healthcare leverages CDME to bring product to life

As a person who relies on supplemental oxygen to survive, Melissa Egts, the founder of J.M. Hartfiel Healthcare, grew tired of her nasal cannula falling on the floor.

“I was sick and tired of it,” said Egts. “Can you imagine that tubing falling on the floor all the time and then having to put it back in your nose? Or, hanging it on a doorknob other people have touched while you eat or wash your face.”

Searching for a solution, Egts created the patent-pending Respiratory Shield. Her invention is now a product coming to market in 2021 because of her partnership with The Ohio State University's Center for Design and Manufacturing Excellence (CDME) through the U.S. Department of Defense Supply Base Resilience and Diversification Program.

The program was developed alongside the U.S. Department of Defense Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation and designed to provide product development support for Ohio-based small businesses, startups, and inventors.

J.M. Hartfiel Healthcare's Respiratory Shield was selected in the first of three rounds of the SBRD Program to receive funded technical support from CDME. The technology was one of the seven selected in the first round for development out of 44 applicants. Egts is now collaborating with CDME engineers to advance her product's technology readiness level (TRL).

"CDME has done a great job of taking my idea and making it manufacturable," Egts said. "They've made all the difference in lowering the cost while keeping my design intact."

Supplemental oxygen may be recommended by a doctor when a patient’s lungs cannot meet their body’s needs. The treatment often involves supplying the patient with extra oxygen using a machine. This oxygen is delivered through a nasal cannula, a small flexible tube connected to the oxygen source. The tube includes two open prongs that rest inside the patient's nostrils.

Patients or caregivers typically take nasal cannulas on and off several times throughout the day. This habit occurs when the patient receives oxygen in a hospital setting, at home, or on-the-go.

Egts identified with this behavior that when a nurse or oxygen user takes the nasal cannula off, it is hung over a chair or doorknob or laid down on a high touch surface like a bed or couch. The unprotected prongs potentially pick up pathogens and then transfer those contaminants into the patient's nose upon re-insertion

Egts designed the Respiratory Shield to enclose and protect the nasal cannula prongs when the device is not in use. Her invention is designed to protect against the indirect transmission of pathogens via the nasal cannula into a patient's nose.

"It's very simple to use, but that's what makes it useful," Egts said.

Egts 3D printed her first prototype. Now, she's working with Corinne Macnichol, a lead engineer at CDME, to outfit the design for injection molding.

"Corrine has done an amazing job figuring out how to manufacture this product," Egts shared. "There are certain features of the original design, like the curvy front, that I really liked, but we initially thought it wouldn't work.

"My mold would have been more complex and expensive, but CDME engineers figured out an incredible workaround, so now I can have an inexpensive mold with almost all the features I want. Their changes have improved the functionality of the product," Egts continued.

Those features are not only crucial to Egts as an inventor but also a user. She has been using supplemental oxygen full-time since 2017. Her idea for the Respiratory Shield transpired during a family vacation to Quebec City.

"It seemed like my nasal cannula was on the floor of every restaurant in that city," Egts said. "If you take it out and you're also carrying your portable oxygen concentrator, where do you put it? You end up stuffing it in a pocket, and then it ends up on the ground. My workaround was to carry alcohol swabs with me, but I thought there has to be something better than this."

She tried to find a nasal cannula cover to purchase online but was unsuccessful.

Although Egts has a background in technical writing, she is not an engineer. She realized 3D printing might be an option for her solution based on her daughter's experience on the high school robotics team.

"I just thought, I'm going to go to a local college and see if they’ll help me make something," Egts said.

She ended up working with students who 3D printed her prototype. Since then, she's sought out opportunities to advance her product.

"I went through the National Science Foundation’s Innovation Corps at the University of Akron, and one of the instructors passed along an email with information about the SBRD Program," Egts said.

Along with product development, the SBRD Program has helped Egts realize her concept's dual-use application. Dual-use technologies have both commercial and military applications.

Through the SBRD Program, Egts worked with GDI Partners to present her solution to military representatives and articulate how her idea supports the defense mission. She showcased the Respiratory Shield to U.S. Combatant Commands Science & Technology Scouts at the August 2020 TRIAD event.

"I would have never thought about marketing to the U.S. Department of Defense, but now it makes so much sense to me," Egts shared. "If you risk an injury for our country, you should not also risk contracting a virus. Neither should a person in a nursing home or who uses oxygen at home. If you’re already medically compromised, or in a healthcare facility, you're more susceptible to an infection."

CDME Program Manager Mary Hoffman Pancake is also helping J.M. Hartfiel Healthcare secure connections and gain insight within the medical community.

"This isn't rocket science, but it's a very good idea that's going to be very useful and help a lot of people," Egts said.

Egts' entrepreneurial journey will continue after CDME completes the design of her manufacturing mold. She is working through the Bounce Innovation Hub and her hospital partner to bring the Respiratory Shield to market in 2021.

To learn more about J.M. Hartfiel Healthcare and its patent-pending Respiratory Shield, please visit https://www.jmhartfielhealthcare.com. Visitors are encouraged to submit a contact form to inquire about collaboration opportunities or pre-order the product. You can also connect with Melissa on LinkedIn.