With two major Middle Eastern conflicts in the past two decades, we, the public have been constantly reminded of the tragic realities of war. Each year, 1 out of 4 preventable military deaths among US troops are caused by non-compressible hemorrhage: traumatic bleeding in the groin, upper thigh, and axillary regions. These are wounds you can’t put a traditional tourniquet on and are especially difficult to treat by current means due to complexity of the anatomy within these areas. Atlanta-based ARMR Systems (formerly known as Traumedex) is engineering the world’s first wearable hemorrhage control system to stop the bleeding anytime, anywhere.
Founded by Chibueze Ihenacho and Yegor Podgorsky, “ARMR Systems is new medical company pioneering life-saving, wearable hemorrhage control systems,” explains Ihenacho. “In the event of traumatic injury, this extremely accessible, lightweight device could be deployed by a patient or their buddy at moment’s notice to stabilize severe bleeding anywhere on the body. It’s a first of its kind product that can be thought of as a life jacket for your cardiovascular system, capable of stopping bleeding anytime, anywhere. We’re specifically engineering this solution to address gaps in the provision of care of soldiers, first-responders, or anyone going into harms way.”
“According to recent studies examining the conflicts of the past 15 years, hemorrhage accounts for 90% of preventable military deaths and 35% of all pre-hospital deaths in the US,” he continues. “There’s a gap in pre-hospital trauma care that current means (tourniquets, gauze, hemostatics) have been unable to address. The rise of IEDs has led to more pelvic and high leg injuries that require special means to control. The current devices made for these injuries are bulky, inaccessible, and require a medic’s application. Damage to these major arteries requires a faster response.”
Ihenacho and Podgorsky got the idea for ARMR during their time at Georgia Tech as part of their senior Biomedical Engineering Capstone Design Course. “At the time, a variety of ongoing violent conflicts around the world motivated us to think intensively about the potential to automate the stabilization of traumatic injuries,” recalls Ihenacho. “Further investigation of personal protective equipment found a large gap in the continuum of care within the military. Namely, stabilizing patients in a pre-hospital setting where advanced medical support isn’t readily available to injured soldiers. The device was made to fit the need with extensive input from experienced military surgeons, medics, and corpsmen.”
With their innovative product, there is both a sizeable market opportunity as well as the potential for ARMR to make a lasting positive impact in the lives of thousands of soldiers, law enforcement and first responders, not only domestically, but all over the world. Aside from domestic and international military/paramilitary applications, there are opportunities for the cross application of the device to address a variety of medical needs within clinical, civilian and humanitarian/disaster relief settings.
Atlanta has always played an essential and foundational role in their story. “Having both grown up and attended high school in the metro area and then obtained our engineering degrees from Georgia Tech, we owe much of our abilities to problem solve and innovate to this community,” he says. “Over the past year, as we’ve explored this opportunity and looked for partners to support our company’s development, the rich and growing entrepreneurial ecosystem around Tech Square and all over Georgia has supplied everything from key manufacturing partners to great advisors and other support systems. We are real excited to be a part of this community. It’s a great time to grow a medtech company in the ATL.”
ARMR are seeking ‘all around badass interns’ to join their team. They’re after a Business Development/Marketing Intern as well as an Engineering/Technical Intern with some product development or other technical skills). If you’re interested in interning with a startup that has the potential to save thousands of lives, contact them today.
They are also running a fundraising campaign to help with overhead and research. Check out their plea below and throw them some bones to support this project.
Follow ARMR on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/armrsystems
Twitter: https://twitter.com/armrsystems
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/traumedex
