By Laurel Purves
For WisBusiness.com
Going into cardiac arrest is bad enough without a doctor sticking you in the groin with a large needle.
That’s why Dr. Erik Kulstad, an emergency physician and chemical engineer, founded Advanced Cooling Therapy in 2009. The company aims to create a device that can save lives by controlling patient body temperatures in an innovative, cost-effective manner.
Before Kulstad formed ACT, doctors initiated therapeutic hypothermia in cardiac arrest patients by inserting a catheter into a major blood vessel in the groin.
Therapeutic hypothermia is a fancy way of saying intentionally lowering the patient’s body temperature. Typically the temperature is lowered by about four degrees during the 24 hours after resuscitation. When therapeutic hypothermia is implemented, chances of survival in patients double.
Despite encouraging statistics, many patients do not get the therapy because it is expensive, inefficient, and very messy.
“It is a bloody procedure,” Kulstad said.
The procedure is also risky, sometimes leading to blood clots and infections. To reduce risk, everything must be sterilized.
Kulstad knew there had to be a better way, so he came up with a solution.
“The alternative we came up with is a very simple procedure,” he said. “It can be done in minutes by almost any medical provider”
The device ACT developed is disposable and attaches to the esophagus. Instead of externally cooling the body like other procedures, this device circulates cold water and cools the body down internally.
“It controls temperature from the core which is a lot more efficient,” Kulstad said.
Not only is it more efficient, it’s less invasive, less risky, and easier to install. The device is inserted through the mouth, down the throat, and into the esophagus.
“It doesn’t have to be sterile and there’s no blood squirting anywhere,” John Slump, who oversees ACT’s finance and accounting, explained. “You can bang it in in under a minute. Set it and forget it.”
The device can also be used to maintain temperatures during surgery and reduce fevers.
ACT’s device is not yet available to patients, but Kulstad and Slump think it will be soon.
“It is going through the regulatory systems right now,” Kulstad said. “It is in the European system right now.”
Even though the device isn’t ready for the U.S. market yet, it is already making waves in the medical community.
“We’ve seen a lot of excitement from the medical community,” Kulstad said. “They’re eager to get their hands on the device.”
The company has received three patent since July 2012 and has seven more pending.
“We’re pretty excited about the path forward,” Slump said. “By the end of the year we could have some very important milestones coming up.”
— Purves is a student in the UW-Madison Department of Life Sciences Communication.
