5 August 2023

Five Years in the Making: Wearable Life-Support Vest Is Issued a Patent

Geneva Principal Investigator Andriy Batchinsky, MD, and his team at the Autonomous Reanimation and Evacuation (AREVA) Research Program have been pioneering advancements in extracorporeal life support, focusing on combat and civilian trauma and novel critical care interventions to save lives both on and off the battlefield since 2014. Recently, Dr. Batchinsky, George Harea, Daniel Wendorff, Brendan Beely, and Teryn Roberts, PhD, announced that their invention, the Combat Resuscitation Organ Support System (CROSS), was issued a patent.

Dr. Batchinsky and the AREVA team have a particular interest in minimally invasive Extracorporeal Life Support (ECLS) for the treatment of lung and multiorgan failure in combat and civilian trauma, as well as resuscitation of patients with massive severe combined injuries and exsanguination. In other words, they want to save those others deem unsavable.

Dr. Batchinsky has set out to introduce modern lung support and renal replacement technologies in wearable format and without the need for mechanical ventilators. In 2018 the initial invention disclosures and international patent applications were filed for the CROSS. “This invention marks a critical leap towards what may be possible for future warfighters suffering critical illness or injury,” says AREVA Research Coordinator Brendan Beely.

The AREVA team’s invention combines separate organ support therapies (lung and renal) in a mobile, wearable platform, requiring a much smaller footprint than the standard of care today. Additionally, the capability can be tailored to the casualty’s needs by providing only lung or renal support or combining the therapies when needed. The technology envisioned currently exists in separate forms and today requires standalone machines too bulky to be utilized in the far-forward combat environment.

Research on how to best optimize and utilize this technology is at the forefront of the AREVA team’s goals and is what the team strives for daily. “This has been a long process, as all good things are,” says Beely. “The AREVA team is grateful to Geneva for supporting the pathway to protect intellectual property developed by Geneva team members.”

Visit the AREVA research program webpage to learn more about the CROSS and other research the team is conducting.