Home-care inhalation therapy requires a ready supply of oxygen for patient comfort. Unfortunately, available techniques for supplying oxygen all suffer major drawbacks. The most notable common problem is excessive weight which limits patient mobility inside and outside the home. The objective of this research is to demonstrate the efficacy of a truly portable home-care unit for inhalation therapy based upon A/G Technology Corporation's recently developed advanced hollow fiber membrane cartridges. A breadboard unit constructed during Phase 1 with projected oxygen flow and concentration characteristics equivalent to 1 liter/minute pure oxygen weighed about 15 lbs, occupied 0.6 cu. ft and had power consumption of 100 watts. Improvements in packaging to be performed in this Phase will reduce the unit's weight to under 13 lbs. In a Consortium Arrangement with Beth Israel Hospital (Boston, MA) laboratory and human studies are planned to test portable enricher equivalency to 1 to 2 liters/min of nominal 100% oxygen, demonstrate that no patient risks result from atmospheric pollutant concentration, determine if any potential for nosocomial infection exists and to confirm patient acceptability of the portable enrichers.
