MENLO PARK, Calif., Oct. 13 /PRNewswire/ — Cantimer, Inc., a privately-held company developing and commercializing a proprietary sensor technology platform having application in life science, bio-defense, environmental testing, point-of-care diagnostics and home health markets, today announced that it has shipped ten alpha instruments for real-time, non-invasive assessment of human hydration to the U.S. Government’s Technical Support Working Group (TSWG; http://www.tswg.gov/). The units will be used for incident-scene assessment of dehydration in firefighters, and represent the second major deliverable under the previously-announced $996,000 contract awarded by TSWG to Cantimer in May 2008. Six prototypes were delivered on May 20th, 2008.
“Cantimer has come a long way in a very short period of time and we are very pleased to be taking delivery of these alpha instruments — on budget and on schedule,” said Dr. Christina Baxter, from TSWG. “The focus over the last several months has been on lab work that adds to the body of knowledge regarding salivary osmolality as a useful measure of human hydration or dehydration status. That work has gone very well. We are now looking forward to using these new devices for actual field testing in structural firefighting or search and rescue operations — with more of an emphasis on implementation, ergonomics and the user experience,” she added.
Maintaining an optimal level of hydration is a major health concern for firefighters and other emergency scene first responders. Progressive acute dehydration associated with physical exertion in heat-stressed environments significantly increases the risks of temperature-related health problems, with resulting losses of productivity and, in some cases, death. It has been shown that fluid losses of as little as 2% of total body weight (3.5 pounds in a normally 175 pound individual) can lead to noticeable compromises in physical and cognitive performance.
Dehydration and resulting temperature-related health problems among firefighters are preventable through adequate on-scene hydration management. Cantimer’s devices, incorporating the Company’s proprietary sensing technology, enable convenient, field-deployable, real-time measurement, and therefore management, of hydration status from an easily-obtained sample of saliva.
“The delivery of these prototypes is a significant milestone for us,” said Robin C. Stracey, President and CEO of Cantimer. “The collaboration between TSWG, Cantimer and the team at Skidmore College in New York that has conducted much of the recent lab work, has been outstanding. We look forward with enthusiasm to delivering beta units in the early part of next year and to fully commercializing the device thereafter,” he added.
Although easy to treat if identified early, dehydration is a pervasive condition that contributes to a large number of preventable hospitalizations in the U.S. every year. Cantimer believes that the availability of a hand-held device that aims to make it as easy to determine a person’s state of hydration as it is to take their body temperature will have significant benefits, not only for the health and safety of firefighters and other first-responders, but for military personnel, athletes at all levels, the elderly, the very young and those suffering from a wide range of common medical conditions, including asthma.
About Cantimer
Cantimer is a privately-held, development stage company commercializing a patented, proprietary sensor technology platform having application in life science, bio-defense, environmental testing, point-of-care diagnostics and home health markets. The Company’s first focus is on development and commercialization of point-of-care products for convenient, non-invasive, measurement and monitoring of human hydration status using saliva as a sample.
Cantimer, Inc.
CONTACT: Robin Stracey, Chief Executive Officer of Cantimer, Inc.,+1-650-474-0500, Ext. 320, Facsimile, +1-650-474-0599, [email protected]
Web site: http://www.cantimer.com/
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