GUIDE, from MIT Lincoln Laboratory and Massachusetts General Hospital, is the first technology that enables a medic or EMT to catheterize a central vein or artery rapidly and accurately in a pre-hospital environment and save lives from trauma injuries. GUIDE performs the key step of inserting a needle in the vessel, after which a medic can readily complete catheterization. There is a critical need for GUIDE technology for both military and civilian medical care, with approximately 150,000 U.S. civilians dying each year from trauma. Traumatic injuries result in more years of life lost for U.S. civilians than cancer or heart disease. Hemorrhage is the leading cause of preventable death for both military and civilian trauma and rapid, pre-hospital vascular access is a key to reducing the number of deaths. GUIDE is the result of extensive iterative development and testing on phantoms and porcine hemorrhage models. The technology’s primary access vessels are the femoral vein and artery, but the technology can also be applied to the internal jugular and peripheral veins.
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