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|Articles|December 2, 2013

New Isolation Gown Invented by Nurse to Address Hospital Infections

Edison Nation Medical medical device incubator and healthcare innovation portal, announces a licensing agreement with Medline Industries, Inc. for the GoGown, a revolutionary disposable isolation gown designed by healthcare entrepreneur Ginny Porowski, RN, MA, to reduce the risk of healthcare-acquired infections (HAIs).

Porowski knew that used gowns and gloves, intended to protect healthcare workers and patients, were potential vehicles for spreading contaminants. This led to her idea for the GoGown.

The GoGown is designed with a patented interior wrapper. After removing the gown and gloves, the wearer rolls the gloves within the gown, winds this interior wrapper around the entire package and secures it using the affixed adhesive tab. The end result is a tightly bound, secure bundle whose size, shape and weight make it easy to discard without leaving any contaminated surfaces exposed.

Edison Nation Medical negotiated a licensing agreement with Medline, the nations largest privately held manufacturer and distributor of health care and surgical products, for the production and distribution of GoGown. Medline adds GoGown to the more than 350,000 products it currently manufactures and distributes to hospitals and other healthcare facilities throughout the United States.

Were excited to partner with Edison Nation Medical on the GoGown because they share our passion for developing solutions to our customers biggest challenges, says Stephanie Pasko, vice president of Medlines Preventive Care division. Reducing hospital-acquired infections is a major priority for our customers and the GoGown complements our existing array of gowns, gloves, masks and other protective apparel solutions to help make it easier for our customers to enhance patient and staff safety.    

Porowski recognized that disposable isolation gowns and gloves are often discarded improperly and spill over the waste receptacles in patients rooms, creating an environment in which hospital workers, patients and visitors may come into contact with often-invisible contaminants on discarded gowns and gloves.

Disposable medical gowns and gloves are supposed to protect patients, visitors, nurses and doctors from harmful infections, provided that they are used and disposed of correctly. I invented the GoGown because current disposable gowns do not control for safe containment and disposal, which can lead to cross contamination and infection, says Porowski. The GoGowns unique interior panel is what enables the wearer to safely and quickly wrap it into a small bundle that can be discarded in such a way to minimize the risk of exposed contaminated areas, decrease trash volume and provide a cleaner patient environment.
 
Porowski consulted a number of healthcare professionals and product development resources in her effort to bring the GoGown to market before teaming up with Lisa Bourget, MBA, a 20-year healthcare product management and business development veteran. Together, Porowski and Bourget developed the GoGown commercialization strategy and were selected for NC IDEA's Groundwork Labs in Durham, N.C., a program to help technology entrepreneurs reach their next stage. While at Groundwork, they were introduced to Edison Nation Medical. Through Edison Nation Medical, Porowski and Bourget were able to leverage the product development resources and medical connections necessary to bring the GoGown to life on a broader commercial scale.
 
GoGown is a perfect example of how Edison Nation Medical can enable people who have great medical invention ideas with the ability to get their products into the marketplace, says Robert Grajewski, Edison Nation Medicals president. Ginny had a novel concept, but could not gain the necessary access into the medical world until she brought the GoGown to us. We are excited for Ginny and Lisa and can see the GoGown becoming the new standard of care for isolation gowns throughout the health care industry.
 
The GoGown has two issued U.S. patents and has patents pending in the European Union, Canada, India and China.

Source: Edison Nation Medical 
 

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