IR-MED is developing a real-time, noninvasive optical monitor to determine Propofol blood concentration. The monitor includes a set of sensors which are topically attached to the patient’s skin during anesthesia or sedation and a display.
Propofol is the drug most commonly used for induction and maintenance of anesthesia or as an intravenous sedation agent. It was introduced in the mid 1980s and has been used for hundreds of millions of procedures worldwide.
Real-time blood concentration of Propofol, if monitored in real time, will provide optimal drug performance and reduce side effects, morbidity and mortality associated with its current use.
Currently used off-line methods for measuring Propofol are laboratory based. They are:
Until now there has been no real time monitoring of Propofol blood concentration.
The IR-MED is expected to reduce procedural costs by enabling physicians who are not anesthesiologists to administer propofol for procedural sedation.
The cost of involving an anesthesiologist in the short procedure to administer Propofol is estimated at $1,000 per patient in the US. This expense could be avoided if Propofol is administered by non-anesthesiologist physicians with IR-MED’s real time Propofol monitor is used.
With approval from the Israel Ministry of Health and IRB, the first human study was completed at the Rambam Healthcare Campus in Israel. The IR-MED non-invasive real-time monitor of blood Propofol was used to monitor a group of 40 women who underwent gynecological procedures under Propofol sedation.
The results of the study confirmed the ability to follow Propofol blood concentration changes noninvasively, in real-time and in a repeatable manner.
