Health Canada, the regulatory agency governing medical devices in Canada, has authorized the emergency importation and sale of the MediPines AGM100®, a pulmonary gas exchange monitor to help combat the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada.
The MediPines AGM100 is a non-invasive, portable respiratory medical device used to rapidly assess a patient’s respiratory status and impairment. The device helps clinicians to quickly triage a patient’s respiratory impairment, which is critical to both disease management and hospital workflow.
Health Canada’s decision comes amid an increase in COVID-19 cases in Canada, which require close respiratory monitoring. As of April 28th, Canada reported 49,616 cases of COVID-19 and 2,841 deaths, according to data tracked by Johns Hopkins University.
“We are currently using the MediPines AGM100 to allow medical staff to quickly get respiratory impairment readings without having to expose patients to more invasive and logistically complicated procedures,” stated Toronto area emergency physician, Dr. Oswaldo Ramirez.
According to Dr. Philip Ainslie, Professor and Canada Research Chair, and Co-Director for the Centre of Heart, Lung, & Vascular Health at the University of British Columbia, “We have extensively used and validated the MediPines AGM100 in numerous physiological and clinical scenarios. It provides a safe, reproducible and valid measure of non-invasive pulmonary gas exchange.”
“We understand the gravity of the situation faced both in the United States and by our Canadian colleagues, and have ramped up production to meet the increasing COVID-19 demand for our non-invasive gas exchange monitors in an effort to ensure that frontline healthcare workers have the tools they need to combat this pandemic,” stated Steve Lee, CEO of MediPines.
The MediPines Gas Exchange Monitor, AGM100®, is a portable device used to rapidly assess a patient’s respiratory status, non-invasively. It is the first technology of its kind to integrate a comprehensive set of critical parameters and innovative respiratory measurements analyzed from a patient’s normal breathing sample in a simple, easy-to-administer breathing test, within a few minutes.
Source: Company Press Release
