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A team of Johns Hopkins University undergraduate biomedical engineering students were named runners-up in the 2023 Collegiate Inventors Competition in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday.
The OnPoint Ventilation team—senior Sneha Batheja, junior Alexandra Gorham, senior Charlie Almoney, senior Ria Jha, junior Nina Nair, senior Arijit Nukala, and junior Krisha Thakur—created the Bronchosleeve, a novel catheter designed to reduce the complications associated with one-lung ventilation, or OLV, a common procedure in chest surgeries.
Video credit: National Inventors Hall of Fame
Each year, more than 600,000 patients undergo the OLV procedure, which involves an anesthesiologist ventilating one lung and deflating the other so a surgeon can access the chest cavity. This procedure is often fraught with challenges and risks; for example, current devices are bulky, difficult to insert, and can easily become dislodged.
The team's Bronchosleeve prototype simplifies the OLV procedure and reduces surgical complications; with a smaller diameter and enhanced visualization capabilities, the catheter is easier to insert and less likely to dislodge or move during the procedure.
The OnPoint Ventilation team, one of five undergraduate finalists, presented its invention to a panel of judges from the National Inventors Hall of Fame and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office this week. As runners-up, the team received a $5,000 prize.
Founded in 1990, the Collegiate Inventors Competition is a national competition that recognizes and rewards innovations, discoveries, and research by college and university students and their faculty advisers. Johns Hopkins has had 39 finalists in the annual competition.
