This Portable Life Support Machine Can Do It All

Innovator Doug DeVries
Age 63
Chief executive officer of Ventec Life Systems, a 35-employee startup in Bothell, Wash.

Form and function
The 18-pound Vocsn—its name is an acronym—combines a ventilator, an oxygen concentrator, cough assistance, suction, and a nebulizer to treat conditions such as muscular degeneration, spinal cord injury, and underdeveloped lungs.

1. Program
A clinician programs the toaster-size Vocsn using a touchscreen interface to select the therapies needed for a given patient.

2. Breathe
With the device aboard a wheelchair or stroller, the user can leave the home or hospital unencumbered by separate devices or oxygen bottles.

Origin
DeVries, a mechanical engineer, devoted his career to ventilators after his father, an amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patient, declined ventilation to extend his life. After launching a portable ventilator with a predecessor company, DeVries founded Ventec in 2013.

Funding
Ventec has raised $28 million from private investors to develop Vocsn.

Customers
DeVries is pitching hospitals, long-term-care facilities, and equipment providers on the Vocsn. He says the combined device is cheaper than separate ones but declined to name a price.

Delivery
Vocsn received U.S. Food and Drug Administration clearance in April and is shipping in June.

Next Steps
DeVries says Ventec is working on getting clearance for Vocsn in other countries and on selling to first responders and military clients. “The ability to have all of these pieces of equipment readily at hand with a small footprint really has the potential to enhance the quality of life of ventilator-assisted patients,” says Howard Panitch, a pediatric pulmonologist in Philadelphia who treats children on ventilators.