Success Story
AltPAP Innovation: A Pioneering Model for Facilitating the Integration of Innovations
AltPAP innovation is a non-profit organization committed to facilitating access to oxygenation therapies in all hospitals. Respiratory therapy is a crucial issue during a pandemic because it saves lives, but in developing countries, the situation has been dire for years, with entire regions with no ventilator nor oxygen source. No patient should be without access to respiratory assistance.
The team is looking for ways to provide oxygen directly at a patient’s bedside. Current strategies include improving the performance of portable oxygen concentrators and fine-tuning powerful lithium batteries.
A Collaboration-Based Model
To reach its objectives, AltPAP brings together scientific experts, industrialists, and clinicians to solve problems related to alternative respiratory technologies. By joining forces and combining their knowledge, they are contributing to the development of a concrete innovation that will directly benefit patients.
Collaboration is at the heart of AltPAP’s business model. By focusing on open science and sharing results, the organization has created an international network of specialists dedicated to improving respiratory technologies and developed a platform to centralize all the data from the various research projects. The team understands that a collaborative environment allows discoveries to be made faster, so it has designed an ideal space in which to do so.
Ideas Evolving from Academia
AltPAP Innovation was created by Sébastien Proulx and Tatiana Ruiz, both doctoral students in McGill University’s Integrated Program in Neuroscience, in collaboration with Michael Sendbuehler (a retired college dean) and Patricia McClurg, a respiratory therapist and instructor.
The organization is the first member company of the RI-MUHC’s Health Technology Accelerator. This centre offers all the resources needed to develop innovations: access to its research facilities, mentorship, clinical trial services, and tools for perfecting groundbreaking new products.
