Northridge, Calif.-based Numotech, Inc. announces the production-ready Numobag Disposable Isolation System (N-DIS), which protects medical staff against infectious or contagious diseases while an infected patient is being transported and monitored. N-DIS is a portable, easily deployed, low-cost, single-use, disposable infectious disease containment system designed to minimize risk to the patient and front-line personnel, while allowing patient monitoring and safe transport fully encapsulated in a medical-grade, oxygen-enriched, clear polyethylene membrane. 

The N-DIS external exhaust filtering system uses high-flow, low-pressure HEPA filters certified to remove more than 99.99% of viral and bacterial contamination from the patient’s exhaled breath, protecting the transport and/or monitoring work environment (air and surfaces) of medical personnel. This is important because front-line medical staff and first responders worldwide have the second highest rates of serious illness and death from COVID-19, surpassed only by the world’s elderly population.

Numobag Disposable Isolation System

The N-DIS is an adaptation of Numotech’s wound care product, the Numobag, an oxygen-bath device for healing severe burns, advanced stage wounds, sores, flesh-eating bacteria, and diabetic and pressure ulcers. In 1998, Numotech signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with Sandia National Labs, with Drs. Keith Miller and Mark Vaughn leading the Sandia team to increase the efficacy of the Numobag.

Over 20 years later, the now retired engineers, Miller and Vaughn, joined Numotech’s technical group to adapt and transform the Numobag technology to provide fully contained protection during patient transit from COVID-19, as well as other infectious/contagious pathogens. In record time, the team developed a system that meets all quarantine protocols and protects medical staff from exposure to infectious and contagious diseases. Additionally, vulnerable patients such as burn victims, those recovering from cancer treatments, or those with compromised immune systems are particularly susceptible to airborne pathogens, and the N-DIS also fully isolates and protects them during transport.

Robert Felton, president of Numotech, says: “We are very proud of the work our team has done under tremendous pressure to get this enhancement production ready, as we have been pushed aggressively over the last few months by hospitals, partners, and governments facing an ever-growing challenge from the spreading COVID-19 on healthcare workers’ health and lives.”

Felton emphasizes that “along with rapid isolation of the patient, another critical operational consideration is patient safety. The emplacement of the N-DIS does not cause undue physical discomfort for the patient, which would impede rapid and effective isolation. The ability to introduce medical-grade oxygen enhances the environment for a patient, while containing and disposing of contaminated exhaust allows the patient to be transported and monitored comfortably and safely.”