Shrirang Gadrey, MD, with new ARK technology.
Shrirang Gadrey, MD, saw the tragedy play out far too many times: A patient’s breathing would be stable in the morning, but – without much warning – abruptly collapse by the afternoon, necessitating life support in the intensive care unit. Sadly, many patients did not survive.
In medical terms, these episodes are labelled as “unanticipated respiratory compromise.” Gadrey observed seasoned nurses and respiratory therapists who were often able to anticipate the episode by homing in on a patient’s labored breathing pattern, but didn’t always alert physicians.
“It always comes down to, ‘Well, all the other vital signs were normal and I wasn’t really sure if the breathing pattern was significant enough,’” Gadrey said. “It struck me that all this would be eliminated if we could measure labored breathing precisely, quantitatively, like we measure blood pressure or temperature.”
Gadrey, an internal medicine physician at UVA Health, wanted to find a solution. And with the help of the University of Virginia Licensing & Ventures Group, he and his team have done just that through a technology they invented called ARK, which stands for Analysis of Respiratory Kinematics.
Gadrey believes ARK can do for labored breathing what a sphygmomanometer does for checking a person’s blood pressure or a thermometer does for taking someone’s temperature.
“When the prognostic importance of labored breathing is indisputable, why would you not want a precise measurement?” Gadrey said. “Why would you leave it to subjective visual estimation at the bedside?”
Read full story in UVA Today.