Solution

The overall concern is providing supplemental oxygen at an earlier point in the care cycle. To that end, a device, or system, for generating oxygen must be designed around the rural health centers and their environmental, financial, and infrastructural restrictions.

Beyond providing immediate oxygen at the rural health centers, there is the issue of extended treatment. In more severe cases of pneumonia, treatment may require hospitalization for a few days or more. Since rural health centers lack the infrastructure to support in-patient treatment, patients require referral to the hospitals, and thus oxygen must be provided while the patients are in transit.

We at Lean Med have come up with a product to address all of these issues. Our system can generate oxygen regardless of the surrounding infrastructure, and has the capability of filling oxygen cylinders to be used by patients in transit to hospitals. We call it the O2 Cube.

The O2 Cube is a solar powered, supplemental oxygen system that when integrated with Lean Med’s Patient Transport Service creates a complete solution for the Rural Health Centers of the world. We address the problems they face with the following features:

1. Solar-Powered: Enables off the grid operation for RHC’s who are without electricity or an unstable supply of electricity.
2. Sealed Enclosure: Provides enclosure and internal protection systems allow for oxygen concentrators and compressors to operate to capacity for their expected lifetimes, without altering the design of the concentrators or compressors by protecting against the harsh environment described previously.
3. Simple User Interface: Delivers an easy to use experience for the medical staff.
4. Oxygen in Transit: The O2 Cube’s ability to fill small oxygen cylinders provides oxygen to the child while in transit from the rural health centers to the central and regional hospitals.
5. Patient Transport Service: The Patient Transport Service supports both patient transport and the prompt return of O2 cylinders to the rural health center. This service can be provided by ambulances, bicycles, motorbikes, etc.
6. Pulse Oximetry: The O2 Cube system comes with a pulse oximeter to improve the diagnosis of pediatric pneumonia and other respiratory conditions.

There are no existing proven solutions today for delivering supplemental oxygen to Rural Health Centers (RHC’s). In a number of African countries there are a few early stage programs attempting to deliver large oxygen tanks to RHC’s from a central oxygen manufacturing plant but the cost and reliability of the deliveries are problematic.

The larger hospitals in these nations use 1) Centralized oxygen production and pipe it throughout the hospital 2) Large oxygen tanks delivered from a central production center and 3) Oxygen concentrators providing supplemental oxygen directly to the patient. None of these offerings are viable in RHC’s.

As described earlier, there is a potential market extension opportunity with community, district, county, and referral hospitals where the O2 Cube may be employed as a backup source for oxygen. Our largest competitive challenge is the status quo. By building awareness, consideration, decision and loyalty we can deliver a powerful solution to the RHC’s.

The O2 Cube Solution has a number key innovations that provide distinct advantages over current technologies when facing the challenge of treating pediatric pneumonia patients in a Rural Health Center:

1. Solar-Powered: The O2 Cube does not rely on grid electricity which allows it to be operated at remote, rural health facilities. There are no solar powered oxygen solutions on the market today.
2. Extended Lifetime: The provision of sealed enclosure (alongside filtration and de-humidification systems) allows for the O2 Cube to fully extend the lifetime of the oxygen concentrators and compressors. Existing oxygen products designed for use in the developed nations fail at an alarming rate in low resource environments.
3. Oxygen in Transit: Providing portable oxygen allows for patients access to oxygen while in transit. There are no products today on the market fulfilling this need.
4. Pulse Oximetry: Delivering oxygen to the right patients is made all the more difficult when a physician can’t diagnose whether or not a patient requires supplemental oxygen. Unlike the alternative options, the O2 Cube comes with a pulse oximeter to aid in the diagnosis of patients with low blood-oxygen levels.
5. O2 Humidification: The O2 Cube is capable of using exhaust water from the de-humidification system in order to humidify the supplemental oxygen for patients. In areas where the air is much dryer, it is better to prevent patients, especially young children, from breathing in dry oxygen in that may agitate their lungs. No product on the market today offers this feature.