Maple Grove Company Could Save Lives and Millions of Dollars

A Maple Grove company is making a product that may one day save hundreds of lives and millions of dollars in unnecessary health care expenses. Start-up company Pursuit Vascular is having its product, consisting of two plastic screw-caps each with a small dipstick and sticky invisible coating, tested on thousands of patients who visit dialysis clinics.

The Star Tribune reports that the product aims to reduce the number of serious bloodstream infections that occur each year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates about 37,000 hemodialysis patients each year get bloodstream infections:

For the past year, a start-up company there called Pursuit Vascular has been having its ClearGuard HD Antimicrobial Barrier Caps for hemodialysis catheters quietly tested on thousands of patients who visit dialysis clinics run by major competing chains, Fresenius Medical Care North America and DaVita.
The DaVita study is still ongoing, but Pursuit Vascular CEO Doug Killion said the industry that fights kidney failure is already excited about the strong results from the randomized study of Fresenius patients.
“You can reduce the infection rate by 69 percent, as we’ve shown in this study that was just published, which is a stunning number,” Killion said. “People are ecstatic about a 69 percent reduction in these infections, with a product that is ... brilliantly simple.”

Read much more at the Star Tribune.

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