Kiwi researchers are developing a device they hope will prevent deaths from surgical complications.
Technology from the wine industry is being adapted for use in a medical device that has potential to save hundreds of thousands of lives per year.
Postoperative complications are the chief cause of death around surgery and, of these, 1.5 million deaths per year could be prevented if they were picked up and treated earlier.
Professor Windsor at Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland hopes a device his team are developing will provide an affordable solution.
“What we’ve developed is a device which allows us to measure oxidative stress in two minutes at the bedside.
“So, mitochondrial dysfunction is a feature of disease and post-operative complications.
The funding will give the researchers an opportunity to refine the technology for use in clinical settings, and then it will be tested in hospitals around the world, especially in resource-constrained hospitals.
Professor Windsor and his colleagues hope the device will become as common as a blood-pressure cuff or a pulse oximeter.
The project has just received a share of $50 million funding from Wellcome Leap, which is going to 13 groups working to improve the safety of surgery.
More than five billion people do not have access to safe surgery, according to the World Health Organisation.
Credit: sunlive.co.nz
