Medical Device Innovation for At-Home Lymphatic Drainage
Tactile Medicalis a leader in developing and marketing at-home therapy devices that treat lymphedema, an impairment to the lymphatic system that results in painful, disfiguring swelling. Untreated lymphedema can lead to irreversible conditions like the formation of fibrotic tissue and recurring episodes of cellulitis. Though sometimes inherited, lymphedema is most often the result of a disruption of the lymphatic system, caused by vascular disease, cancer treatment, or obesity. An estimated five million people in the U.S., and 250 million people worldwide, are affected.
Tactile Medical manufactures pneumatic compression devices that allow lymphedema patients to self-manage at home. The company approached Nottingham Spirk to develop a first-to-market pneumatic compression garment for use on the head and neck and to create the next generationFlexitouch Plus System. We were asked to improve the ease of donning and doffing the various pneumatic compression garments and to re-design the system controller without increasing cost.
Controller Device Innovations Result in Breakthrough IP
We completely redesigned the controller’s user interface and designed a bilateral adapter that now allows the patient to conduct treatment on both legs at the same time, where the previous Flexitouch could not. This was a significant engineering challenge and led to successful IP generation. We also improved the display to a 7-inch color screen and added soft-touch keys. By carefully sourcing new materials, we were able to hold the manufacturing cost of the new Flexitouch Plus controller to within 1 percent of the previous Flexitouch controller, which helped maintain Tactile Medical’s profitability.
The first-of-its-kind head and neck garment (which works with Tactile’s installed base of Flexitouch controllers), the Flexitouch Plus controller and new easier to use garments are all FDA cleared.
