Purdue News

July 2, 1999 Purdue helps heart device developers pick up the pace WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- A developer of portable heart monitors seeks advanced technology and a refined business strategy with a move this week into the new Purdue Technology Center, just a heartbeat away from Purdue University. "Entering Purdue's new small business Gateways Program at the Purdue Technology Center allows our company's headquarters to be closer to Purdue and its Hillenbrand Biomedical Engineering Center," said Hans Naumann, president and chief executive officer of Technology Transfer Inc. The company's offices previously were in Lafayette. The Purdue Technology Center, a brand new 60,000-square-foot facility in the Purdue Research Park, opened for occupancy in June. The center will house numerous start-up companies and fledgling businesses, mainly in the high-tech field. "Being close to the research is important," Naumann said, "but as a tenant of the center, we also can take advantage of the incubator's Gateways Program, which offers marketing, accounting, public relations and business strategy assistance." The company's pocket-sized electro-cardiograph (EKG) called PAM (Personal Arrhythmia Monitor) was developed and patented by the Purdue Research Foundation and two Purdue professors of biomedical engineering, Leslie Geddes and Neal Fearnot. PAM, priced at $3,495 per unit, is marketed primarily to home health-care specialists and veterinarians. Sales are approaching $500,000. The devices, when pressed lightly against the chest, measure electrical patterns in the heart. These patterns can be transferred to a personal computer or printed out on a special printer and then faxed or e-mailed to a doctor. "At the Purdue Technology Center, we plan to complete an engineering prototype of a telecommunications modem that will enable the heart rhythm information to be phoned straight to the doctor's office," Naumann said. PAM's unique dry contact electrodes and performance features position it for multiple applications, including home health care, physicians, hospitals, nursing homes, emergency medical services, veterinarians, Third World medical facilities, commercial and industrial health services, and emergency care. The use of PAM within home health care is saving HMOs and insurance companies tens of thousands of dollars, according to Naumann. PAM is being promoted as an efficient tool for heart monitoring not only for patients with heart diseases, but also for diabetics, drug therapy, drug detection, health physicals and general health of homebound patients. Technology Transfer Inc., founded in 1993 in Lafayette, is seeking additional private investors to provide $3 million in investment capital towards sales promotion and marketing, as well as future product development, including continued miniaturization concurrent with the introduction of high-resolution displays, faster data co-processors, and improved data storage and communication capacities. The device may someday monitor other functions, including blood-glucose, blood pressure, oxygenation, and body temperature and metabolic rate. The Purdue Research Park, which opened in 1961, is home to 81 companies that employ 2,500 people. It covers almost 700 acres, of which 120 have been developed by the Purdue Research Foundation, the nonprofit corporation that sponsors the park. Source: Hans Naumann, (800) 457-9797; (765) 775-3787; pam@ttic.com Writer: Jeanine Smith, (765) 496-3133; jeanine_smith@purdue.edu Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu To the Purdue News and Photos Page