Corum Medical is a start-up company developing LumenI™, a portable, real-time, non-invasive instrument for the measurement of blood hemoglobin. The core technology is based on the work of Dean Gregory Crawford and John McMurdy of Brown University Division of Engineering and Drs. Selim Suner and Gregory Jay of Brown Medical School and Rhode Island Hospital.

Hemoglobin measurement is a vital sign traditionally measured by drawing blood and sending the sample to the laboratory for analysis. Such measurement is invasive, presents a biohazard, and requires significant time for the results to become available. LumenI is a compact, hand-held instrument which analyzes the color of the blood to determine the hemoglobin level. To perform this test non-invasively, LumenI looks at the blood vessels that are covered by an almost transparent membrane in the conjunctiva-the region inside of the lower eyelid-through a unique method of optical spectrometry. Note that these blood vessels in the conjunctiva are easily visible when one tries to get an eyelash out of his or her lower eye lid or inserts a contact lens. LumenI applies a series of algorithms to the spectral data collected from these blood vessels and calculates the hemoglobin level. The results are available to the clinician within a few seconds in the standard unit of measurement: grams/deciliter.

LumenI has a wide array of applications from hospitals and physician's offices to home health care, blood banks, and special nutritional programs. This device will bring hemoglobin measurement to the point of care, reduce the cost of patient monitoring, and provide an early diagnosis for anemia, a serious disease affecting two billion people worldwide.

The instrument will comply with FDA regulations as a Class I device and will be eligible for approval under a 510(k). Corum Medical anticipates first commercial production in November 2008.

For more information, please visit http://www.corummedical.com.

<< Back to Brown in the Marketplace main page