Sisu Global among 6 companies honoured at Patents for Humanity virtual award ceremony
Our member SISU Global is among six companies that were honoured at a virtual award ceremony by The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) of the Patents for Humanity program, a USPTO initiative promoting game-changing innovations that address long-standing development challenges.
Sisu Global was honoured on 17th September for creating the Hemafuse, a highly effective, mechanical alternative to transfusing donor blood. With a simple push and pull of a handle, the Hemafuse can salvage, filter, and recycle blood from internal bleeding in trauma, without the use of electricity.
Other companies that were honoured that evening include:
Global Vision 2020 (Maryland), for developing the USee Vision Kit, used to provide prescription eyeglasses cost-effectively to hundreds of people, particularly in remote parts of the world, who normally do not have access to vision care.
Sanaria Inc. (Maryland), for developing a whole parasite vaccine for malaria.
Flexcrevator (North Carolina), for creating a machine that enables fast, safe, and hygienic faecal sludge removal, surpassing manual emptying.
NEWgenerator (Florida), for utilizing state-of-the-art membrane bioreactor technology to create a machine capable of the simultaneous recovery of nutrients, energy, and water from wastewater.
Nonspec (Massachusetts), for providing affordable and highly adjustable prosthetic limb systems to amputees that can be taken off the shelf and adjusted in under an hour to those in need.
“Throughout history, inventors and entrepreneurs have harnessed the power of innovation to help the less fortunate around the globe,” said Andrei Iancu, Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO. “I am truly honored to recognize these innovators from across the United States, whose creativity and curiosity dared them to solve some of the toughest humanitarian challenges, and I hope this program will inspire countless more to follow in their footsteps.”
The winners were first announced in August 2020 and also featured Patents for Humanity honourable mentions for Rubitection (Pennsylvania), for creating a medical device that detects early-stage bed sores, thereby improving the quality of patients’ care and lives and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (California), for creating the Warming Indicator, a low-cost, convenient, re-usable, and non-electric infant warmer that maintains a temperature of 37 degrees Celsius (the average human core temperature) for approximately six hours when a parent is not available for skin-to-skin care.
Patents for Humanity is a global competition open to any patent owners, patent applicants, or patent licensees. Submissions are evaluated on the effectiveness of their technology to address humanitarian issues, the contributions made by applicants to increase use of their technology among the impoverished, and the impact those contributions have made to improve lives.
Recognition by The State House of Kenya
This great recognition also comes at a time when Hemafuse, Sisu’s flagship autotransfusion device, also gained official recognition by The State House of Kenya. Hemafuse received an endorsement from The First Lady, Margaret Kenyatta at the launch of the Nairobi Beyond Zero Medical Safari held at Uhuru Park Nairobi on January. The First Lady’s Beyond Zero Kenya initiative donated Hemafuse to Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital to aid in the reduction of maternal deaths.
Hemafuse was created for patients suffering from internal bleeding resulting from trauma, ruptured ectopic pregnancies, or for use in planned surgeries. Hemafuse can be used in cases where there is no donor blood available, and even as the preferred option over donor blood. When compared to autotransfusion, the use of donor blood comes with a higher risk of disease transfer, increased length of stay, readmissions, and other complications.
Use of the device is now being rolled out in Ghana, where it has already been used to save lives in cases of ruptured ectopic pregnancy.
Using Hemafuse to recycle a patient’s own blood saves the donor blood that is available for other patients who are not candidates for autotransfusion. Autotransfusion reduces the risk of infection and disease transmission because using a patient’s own blood is safer than someone else’s.
Hemafuse is now available at hospitals in Kenya and Ghana and will be coming to hospitals across Africa. In Kenya, Hemafuse is sold through Surgipharm and in partnership with Amref. All other locations should reach out to Sisu’s global partner, VIA Global Health: viaglobalhealth.com/product/hemafuse.
Sisu Global have been members of Nairobi Garage for close to two years now and we are happy to see the progress they are making currently in the Health Sector.
