Despite the overwhelming impact critical care has on society, there have been no major innovations in the field in over 30 years.
Sepsis, ARDS, Renal Failure, Acute Lung Injury
Affecting more than one million patients a year, sepsis is one of the top 10 causes of death in the United States.
Sepsis is a severe inflammatory response to infection that can lead to multiple organ failure, resulting in permanent disability or death. Our research aims to enhance the pathophysiologic understanding of inflammation to develop new technologies for ultra-early diagnosis and therapeutic guidance. Although the incidence of multiple organ failure has decreased over time, it remains morbid, lethal and resource-intensive. Single organ dysfunction—especially acute lung injury—however, remains frequent.
Stroke, Spinal Cord Injury, Traumatic Brain Injury
Each year in the United States, an estimated 1.7 million people sustain a traumatic brain injury, 795,000 suffer a stroke, and 17,000 sustain a spinal cord injury.
Acute neurologic injuries in the brain and spinal cord are amongst the most difficult injuries to treat. Even when they aren’t fatal, the ability to recover is limited. That’s why we’re developing diagnostics, monitors and therapeutics for patients who suffer acute neurologic catastrophes such as traumatic brain injury, hemorrhagic stroke, and acute spinal cord injury.
Cardiac Arrest, Cardiogenic Shock, Heart Failure
Each year in the United States, approximately 325,000 sudden cardiac arrests occur outside the hospital, with a survival rate of only 12%.
The Weil Institute’s comprehensive approach to understanding the pathophysiology of cardiac arrest and cardiogenic shock guides our development of next generation diagnostic tools and therapeutics.
Life-Threatening Injury, Traumatic Shock, TBI, Hemorrhage Control, Prolonged Field Care
Trauma is the leading cause of death in the U.S. between the ages of 1 and 46, accounting for 41 million ER visits each year. On the battlefield, approximately 80% of all deaths occur within the first 30 minutes of wounding.
Several important medical and surgical innovations created for military conflicts have found their way into everyday emergency and critical care practice. Research done at the Weil Institute plays a significant role in developing technologies that will be used to save lives both on the battlefield and here at home.
Critical Care Life Support
Predictive Analytics, Hemodynamic Monitoring, Therapeutics
Each year, more people die from critical illness or injury than cancer or heart disease.
It is the silent epidemic of our country that poses a huge cost to patients, families, and the healthcare system. While critical illness can impact every body part in a different way, many of our technologies and therapeutics can be adapted to improve outcomes for patients across the board.
Acute & Critical Care Solutions for Limited-Resource Settings
Any life-threatening injury or illness worsened by limited access to medication, equipment, supplies, devices, trained personnel and/or basic infrastructure.
28 million people die annually from medical emergencies, representing half of the world’s mortality, and a significantly greater proportion of people lose their lives due to emergencies in low-resource, developing countries because few patients have access to the life-saving treatments for time-sensitive medical conditions that emergency care systems effectively provide in developed countries.
Limited-resource settings are those where the capability to provide care for life-threatening illness is restricted by access to medication, equipment, supplies, devices, trained personnel, and/or basic infrastructure (electrical power, transportation, controlled environment/buildings). Caring for acutely/critically ill patients in limited-resource settings can be extremely challenging because of these factors.
The Weil Institute is unifying clinicians, scientists, engineers, and global partners to accelerate the development of specific, desperately-needed technologies and treatments for those areas without traditional or easily-accessible critical care systems.
Investment Opportunity for Growth, Innovation & Implementation
As the leading cause of death worldwide, solving the complex problems within critical illness and injury presents the greatest potential for saving lives. The Weil Institute for Critical Care Research and Innovation is seeking philanthropic support to build and enhance emergency care systems and technologies in low-resource countries and other remote settings and save the lives of people suffering from sudden, unexpected, life-threatening emergencies.
We are seeking initial funding to support Phase I, outlined below. This phase will establish the necessary infrastructure to create and refine transformative medical devices and therapies specifically designed for these noted areas. Continued funding will allow us to move to Phase II and expand the impact of this project to new areas and populations (including remote locations in the United States, Native American reservations, and others), where scalable emergency care development, training programs, technology enhancements and distribution would be relevant and sustainable.
If you live in an area that would benefit from this project, or if you want to contribute to or learn more about Weil’s Acute and Critical Care Solutions in Limited-Resource Settings, please contact us.
Click the image above to view and download a full size version of our Phase 1 infographic (PNG).
