Page 47 - Status Report

The Context

Sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) is a condition in
which the heart suddenly and unexpectedly
stops beating. If this happens, blood stops
flowing to the brain and other vital organs.
SCA usually causes death if it is not treated
within minutes. India’s (and other developing
countries) death rate due to SCA is 3 to 4 times
that of developed countries. This is largely due
to inadequate availability of Defibrilliators. A
Defibrillator is a device that sends an electric
shock to the heart to try to restore its normal
rhythm to reverse the arrest. Inspite of being
a necessary life saving device, defibrillator
availability in India is very limited. While global
standards recommend 1defib per 3 ICU beds,
India has 1 per 50 beds at best or even lower.

The Initiative

To address this challenge, the team from Jeevtronics
Pvt. Ltd., Pune and Dhurjaty Electronics LLC,
Rochester, aims to develop a defibrillator with a built-in
hand-cranked generator. This will enable it to work in
un-electrified areas or areas without continuous power
for 24hours a day. Further, the device is engineered
to withstand harsh conditions in developing countries
such as grid power fluctuations, impact, vibrations etc.
making it rugged. Batteries are completely eliminated
thus making the device virtually maintenance-free and
highly reliable. The device will be highly affordable
with the price to the end-user being one-fourth that
of the international brands. The device’s ability to
quickly generate 1800 volts necessary to defibrillate
a heart within 12 seconds by simply hand-cranking
the device is its foremost novelty. Some other salient
features of this defibrillator include input power from
hand-cranked generator with backup from Grid (also
possible); ECG from Paddles (standard practice) as
well as ECG Electrodes; and, advanced features such
as wifi connectivity for patient and device data.

The Outcome

The team has filed a design patent filed with Indian Patent Office and has prepared the ISO 13485
quality manual. The development of advanced prototype and CE Mark certification application
process are presently underway.

An Association of Biotechnology Led Enterprises jury has selected Jeevtronics as the recipient of
the first eN-ABLE Startup Award. Other awards include Tata Social Enterprise Challenge, Sankalp
Summit,and International Knowledge Millennium Conference. The team was also a finalist at
Social Venture Challenge Asia – a business plan competition organized by DBS Bank and National
University Singapore (NUS).

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