About VACPal by WoundSphere
Medical professionals need a method to assess wounds treated with Negative Pressure Wound Therapy(NPWT) to inform clinical decision making, reduce the need for subsequent OR visits and decrease patient time in the hospital.
WoundSphere presents VAC Pal aimed at helping hospitals through reduced hospital stays, improved patient outcomes, and improved efficiency with clinical decision making. VACPal incorporates a sleek design with compatible barbed tube connector ends allowing it to seemlessy connect to existing NPWT tubing. The device itself houses a custom built Glucose, Lactate , and pH sensors that have been identified through literature and Voice of Customer with Wound Care Specialists and Orthopedic surgeons as primary biomarkers indicating elevated wound healing states. Our team has planned our Regulatory pathway as Class II De Novo Device and as a supporting adjunctive technology to existing NPWT workflow systems.
Background Research
Testing Strategies/Results
Iterations
Early Concept Generation
At the Georgia Tech MedTech Hackathon, our WoundSphere team developed a proof-of-concept portable transducer to measure pH, temperature, and oxygen saturation in wound exudate during NPWT therapy. We validated our concept with industry and healthcare judges, earning 2nd place in the Healthcare Diagnostics Track.
Our WoundSphere team had the opportunity to discuss VACPal with industry professionals at the MD&M East 2025 Conference where we met with manufacturing vendors to go over scaling VACPal while cutting down cost per components including sensors and housing. We were able to work with vendors to incorporate coating in the sensor tubing and cleaning solutions to permit VACPal to be a single patient multi-use device. Packaging, labeling, and sterilization were other parts we were able to explore in regard to how the device would be packaged in a tyvek pouch and sterilized with Ethylene Oxide(EO).