El Camino Health Becomes First to Adopt Innovative, Stick-On Device to Monitor Blood Flow

El Camino Health is first in the world to adopt FloPatch advanced ultrasound technology for sepsis management

While ultrasound assessments are vital to monitoring how critically ill patients who have signs and symptoms of low blood flow are responding to IV fluid, assessments using conventional bedside Doppler ultrasound systems are cumbersome and time consuming.

On Tuesday, March 14, El Camino Health will become the first health system in the world to adopt FloPatch, an innovative new device that sticks to a patient's neck to monitor blood flow in real time. 

Developed by Flosonics Medical, the FDA-approved device is the world’s first wireless, wearable Doppler ultrasound system and provides a simple, fast, and consistent method for measuring changes in heart function. 

Once placed on a patient’s neck, the FloPatch continuously assesses blood flow in the carotid arteries and wirelessly transmits that data to a secure app, providing clinicians with actionable, real time data at the bedside. It is an easy-to-use, hands-free device that can be deployed in under one minute. 

Flosonics was first introduced to El Camino Health via Fogarty Innovation, a non-profit, educational, medical technology accelerator located on the hospital’s Mountain View, California campus. Flosonics participated in Fogarty Innovation’s Company Accelerator Program, a six-month cross-functional mentoring program that helps early-stage companies hone their business model and make progress toward key milestones. 

At El Camino Health, FloPatch is helping clinicians better manage intravenous (IV) fluid therapy earlier in the sepsis care pathway.

“Timing is crucial when caring for patients with sepsis. Our nurses have seen firsthand how effective FloPatch is in monitoring the effectiveness of treatment in deteriorating patients, especially those with sepsis and low blood pressure,” said Cheryl Reinking, chief nursing officer at El Camino Health. “We are proud to be the first hospital in the world to adopt this advanced technology, and have been working with Fogarty Innovation and Flosonics Medical for the past year piloting FloPatch. Our nurses immediately loved it, and helped decide where in the hospital the technology would be the best fit.”

The FDA-approved device provides a simple, fast, and consistent method for measuring changes in heart function. Once placed on a patient’s neck, the FloPatch continuously assesses blood flow in the carotid arteries, which are the major blood vessels that supply blood to the brain, neck, and face. FloPatch then wirelessly transmits that data to a secure iOS mobile application, providing clinicians with actionable, real time data at the bedside. It is an easy-to-use, hands-free device that can be deployed in under one minute.

“We’re thrilled to partner with El Camino Health to launch this pioneering ultrasound technology,” said Dr. Jon-Emile Kenny, chief medical officer at Flosonics Medical. “FloPatch is more than an innovative ultrasound system, it is a new paradigm linking physiology and resuscitation medicine.”

When a patient arrives at a hospital with sepsis, the first line of treatment is IV fluids. However, many patients do not benefit from and may be harmed by excess IV fluids, even early in care. Excess IV fluids can cause complications that result in an extended length of stay and more complex care. While there are tools currently available that can measure fluid response, they are cumbersome and time-consuming to use.

FloPatch’s advanced analytics engine quantifies and displays changing metrics over the course of an assessment and helps clinicians deliver more precise fluid treatment and ultimately, better care to patients. 

One recent study^[1] demonstrated that four to five patients will avoid potentially dangerous fluid overload in the emergency department for every 10 FloPatch assessments performed, resulting in improved patient outcomes and significant cost savings.

Flosonics was first introduced to El Camino Health via Fogarty Innovation (FI), a non-profit, educational, medical technology accelerator located on hospital’s Mountain View campus. Flosonics participated in FI’s Company Accelerator Program, a six-month cross-functional mentoring program that helps early-stage companies hone their business model and make progress toward key milestones.

With guidance from their lead FI mentors, Mike Regan, chief innovation officer, and Dr. Zach Edmonds, strategic advisor, the Flosonics team worked directly with clinicians at El Camino Health to gain a better understanding of the patient journey and determine the best clinical use for their groundbreaking technology. Through this process, the Flosonics team focused on the unmet clinical need of more efficiently managing fluids in critically ill patients, bringing forward a product that streamlines a clinician’s workflow and will ultimately help patients around the world.

About El Camino Health

El Camino Health has served the communities of Santa Clara County for more than 60 years, with nationally recognized physicians and nurses at two not-for-profit acute care hospitals in Los Gatos and Mountain View, and primary care, multi-specialty care, and urgent care locations across the region. El Camino Health is dedicated to giving patients high-quality care utilizing the most advanced technology and research, delivering results first and respect always.

Aside from achieving outstanding patient outcomes, the hospitals have earned numerous awards for clinical excellence, including being named one of the World’s Best Hospitals 2022 by Newsweek and becoming the San Francisco Bay Area’s first Magnet hospital, earning four consecutive designations from the American Nurses Credentialing Center for nursing excellence.

Key service lines include cancer care, cardiovascular care, maternity care, mental health and addiction services, orthopedics, pulmonology, and women’s health. Visit elcaminohealth.org to learn more.

About Flosonics Medical

Flosonics Medical is a Canadian medical device company engaged in the research and development of innovative ultrasound technology. Founded in 2015, the company’s mission is to improve patient care and the practice of medicine through technology-enabled solutions and ground-breaking clinical research.

FloPatch is the world’s first wireless, wearable Doppler ultrasound system. The FDA-approved medical device monitors hemodynamic change in response to an intervention for truly informed clinical management. For more information, visit www.flosonicsmedical.com.

About Fogarty Innovation

Fogarty Innovation is a nonprofit educational medtech incubator dedicated to advancing human health worldwide. The company’s seasoned leadership team provides “full contact coaching” to help young companies navigate the path to commercialization, delivers practical educational programming to stakeholders across the ecosystem, and forges alliances across the innovation ecosystem that accelerate the invention, development, and deployment of new medical technologies into clinical care. Founded by Thomas J. Fogarty, MD, a world-renowned cardiovascular surgeon, inventor, and entrepreneur, Fogarty Innovation is headquartered on the El Camino Health campus in Mountain View, California.  

[1] Kenny, et al. A Wireless Wearable Doppler Ultrasound Detects Changing Stroke Volume: Proof-of-Principle Comparison with Trans-Esophageal Echocardiography during Coronary Bypass Surgery.