We are very excited to welcome Dr. Jennifer Beck and Dr. Christer Sinderby on the podcast this week. This husband and wife couple co-invented and pioneered one of our most favorite modes of ventilation: NAVA.
Dr Jennifer Beck's Bio: Dr. Beck obtained her MSc and PhD from McGill University and studied extensively the function of the human diaphragm – the most important respiratory muscle. Dr. Beck developed a method to accurately measure the electrical activity of the diaphragm, a signal representing the output from the respiratory centres “respiratory neural drive”. This technology is now used in the critical care setting to monitor patients and to control mechanical ventilation. Dr. Beck is co-inventor of the “NAVA technology”, and has published numerous papers (>75 publications) on the topic of control of breathing and patient-ventilator interaction. Dr. Beck’s current work is focussed on new ventilation methods for preterm newborns (“Helping Babies Breathe Better”). For this work, she received the inaugural “Angel’s Den” and GHIA awards in 2016. Dr. Beck holds 17 patents which have been assigned to either University of Montreal/McGill University or St-Michael’s Hospital.
Dr. Christer Sinderby's Bio: Dr Sinderby’s work focuses on control of breathing during mechanical ventilation in acute respiratory failure. In addition, he has physiological interests in lung protection, non-invasive ventilation, monitoring and decision support during mechanical ventilation. Dr. Sinderby also does research on new techniques and methods to support the breathing of critically ill patients. Dr. Sinderby holds over 25 patents on this topic. He is the inventor of Neurally Adjusted Ventilatory Assist (NAVA), a ventilation mode that is FDA-approved and commercially available since 2007 and used in intensive care units in over 40 countries around the world.
If you woud like to get in touch with Dr. Beck or Dr. Sinderby for questions or potential collaboration, they can be reached at:
Please see below some resources that Dr. Beck and Dr. Sinderby wanted to share with our audience:
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DISCLOSURE: Drs. Beck and Sinderby have made inventions related to neural control of mechanical ventilation that are patented. The patents are assigned to the academic institution(s) where inventions were made. The license for these patents belongs to Maquet Critical Care. Future commercial uses of this technology may provide financial benefit to Dr. Beck and Dr. Sinderby through royalties. Dr Beck and Dr Sinderby each own 50% of Neurovent Research Inc (NVR). NVR is a research and development company that builds the equipment and catheters for research studies. NVR has a consulting agreement with Maquet Critical Care.
This episode of The Incubator is proudly sponsored by Chiesi.