Nearly 16 million Americans suffer from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States of America. According to research by Frost & Sullivan, the annual cost to the nation for COPD is approximately $31.9 billion, including healthcare expenditures and indirect costs. Long-term oxygen therapy (LTOT) is one of the few interventions that reduce mortality in patients diagnosed with this disease. Healthcare reform and continuing cost control measures have limited patient therapeutic choices to low-cost modalities regardless of effectiveness. Although there are multiple modalities for delivery of oxygen therapy, such as liquid oxygen systems and oxygen concentrators, the most prevalent mechanism for delivery of oxygen therapy because of economics is high-pressure cylinders. These metallic cylinders store oxygen at a nominal pressure of 2000 pounds per square inch (psi). Adoption of high-pressure gas cylinders as a source of supplemental oxygen for around the clock therapy has been problematic for patients on oxygen therapy. This is because existing devices are cumbersome, not portable and esthetically displeasing. Most patients are too frail to carry these cylinders. Some are ashamed of going out with their cylinders, depriving themselves of oxygen while in public or at work and succumbing to the disease. From a safety point of view, metallic high-pressure gas cylinders are magnetic and pose safety hazards to both patients and healthcare providers if not properly secured, and when used within a magnetic field like hospital MRI environments. They are also fragmentary and potentially catastrophic when ruptured. Furthermore, metallic cylinders are expensive to manufacture, distribute and recycle We propose a conformal oxygen container that overcomes existing drawbacks to metallic cylinders as a source of therapeutic oxygen for COPD patients. Preliminary testing of early prototypes has demonstrated the feasibility of replacing traditional metallic cylinders with a fiber reinforced polymeric container. We plan to build and test additional prototypes in conditions that mimic normal use and abuse modes, to verify that the device can be reliably deployed in most clinical situations, and can be configured to deliver sufficient therapeutic oxygen for prolonged periods of application. Furthermore, we intend to test the device under varying temperature and humidity conditions, to show that its performance is not affected by extreme changes in the atmosphere, and that the shelf-life is equivalent to conventional cylinders for extended periods of storage or use regardless of environmental exposure. We hope to demonstrate that significant improvement in cost, safety, ergonomics and weight can be achieved over existing technology for commercial appeal. ? ? ? ? ?
