Charlottesville company gets funding through NIH initiative fighting opioid addiction
Summary
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (CBS19 NEWS) -- A medical device company in Charlottesville has gotten a major grant to help further the development of image-guided regional anesthesia.According to a release, RIVANNA has received $2.9 million from the National Institutes of Health for the development of Accuro 3S.Along with image-guided anesthesia, RIVANNA says this product will help broaden access to opioid-sparing analgesia for hip fracture pain.Across the country, more than 330,000 people face hospitalization due to hip fractures each year.These kinds of injuries need immediate pain management and surgery in order to restore mobility and reduce the risk of mortality.Conventional treatment uses parenteral opioids, which RIVANNA says increases adverse events such as recurrent opioid use.This technology can provide an opioid-free alternative, but there are barriers to its adoption due to provider experience and specialized training limitations.The company says its Accuro 3S is designed to address such barriers by equipping providers with workflow intelligence for hip regional anesthesia, reducing training requirements, streamlining workflow, and enhancing the utilization of regional anesthesia for hip fracture pain.Additionally, the system includes artificial intelligence-based reconstructions of hip anatomy and real-time needle guidance with automated identification of landmarks within the body.The release says this grant is part of the NIH HEAL (Helping to End Addiction Long-term) Initiative.