Less than a year after leaving South Bethlehem, two Lehigh alumni were among the 15 finalists in the 2010 March Madness of the Mind, a national entrepreneurship contest held annually by the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA). Arlow majored in bioengineering and Bloom in applied life science.
They, in collaboration with the LU Entrepreneurial program and other partners, launched LifeServe Innovations, LLC, which bridges the gap between academia and medicine to develop high impact medical technologies for critical care and oxygen delivery. LifeServe Innovations products set a higher standard for innovation in medicine by improving health-care for patients and their providers. (Website: www.lifeserveinnovations.com)
LifeServe has created an emergency tracheostomy device that has the healthcare field—including doctors and emergency medical technicians—buzzing. A patent is pending on their SMART (Seldinger-Modified Airway Rescue Tracheotomy) Emergency Airway Technique and a prototype has been tested by medical professionals in the field.
LifeServe says its device will use a dilator to perform a percutaneous (conducted through the skin) tracheostomy in the field. The device, according to LifeServe’s Web site, “transforms a percutaneous tracheostomy from a timely and involved surgery to a fast and user-friendly procedure.”
In a relatively short amount of time, Arlow and Bloom have distinguished themselves as up-and-coming entrepreneurs in the emergency medical field. They were awarded a $5,000 grand prize in the Joan F. & John M. Thalheimer Competition at Lehigh in 2009 before coming back in 2010 to win Lehigh’s Michael W. Levin ’87 Advanced Technology Competition.
Lehigh Alumni-inventors Compete on National Entrepreneurial Stage
by Lehigh University
