No matter how advanced technology may get, especially in health care environments, every new innovation comes down to one simple premise: You see a problem, and then you solve that problem. And in most medtech cases, that solution is packed with years of next-level genius thinking.
As is the case with Front Line Medical Technologies, maker of the innovative COBRA-OS (Control Of Bleeding, Resuscitation, Arterial Occlusion System), a device that temporarily blocks the aorta during emergency situations. We turned to Asha Parekh, Ph.D., cofounder of Front Line and the biomedical engineer behind COBRA-OS, to find out more about this device and the future of medtech.
Parekh says she and her co-founder Adam Power, M.D., had the idea for COBRA-OS when she saw there was no surefire way to get patients from point A to point B when they are bleeding out. “The COBRA-OS provides circulatory support in emergency situations. It can be used in a variety of applications,” Parekh says. “The intent is to keep a patient alive until they can get the definitive care they need…. So, it’s a temporary measure to keep a patient in good standing, whether that’s within a hospital, from the ER to the OR, or it’s a motor vehicle accident or on a military battlefield.”
Saving Lives Beyond the Hospital
The device has a wide variety of applications and environments, according to Parekh. It’s used by trauma surgeons, vascular surgeons, interventional radiologists, cardiologists and emergency physicians. So, it’s not just something you’d need in the hospital. You might actually need it on your way there.
“Unfortunately, for 1 out of 10 of those patients who suffer from cardiac arrest outside of a hospital, it’s not likely that their heart will even start again. They won’t get the return of circulation,” she explains. “So, this is one application where we’re trying to bridge that gap and give patients a chance to even get to that definitive care.”
Recognizing the Need
In any industry, the best solution architects are the ones who have their eyes wide open. They see the problem, and then they find the solution. Which is what Parekh and Power did when they observed patient care.
“I was talking to people who were working with paramedics, ambulances, emergency rooms, and they said they were just grabbing for anything trying to make it work. There’s not really been anything they can do in the instance of cardiac arrest other than just keep on doing CPR,” she said of the clinical need she kept seeing. “We saw that there was an opportunity to bridge those gaps in care and ask, ‘How can we make this better?’”
Measuring Medical Success
Patient outcomes are the primary measure of a medical device’s success, but factors like feasibility, patentability and financial benefits also define medtech achievements. Launching a device like the COBRA-OS, a Class II device with mid-level risk, begins with obtaining a license from the FDA or Health Canada.
Parekh says that, because the health care industry is so heavily regulated, there are no shortcuts. “We have to make sure that the outcomes are favorable. But there is a little bit of a gray area because our tool is giving a patient a chance at survival—when they’re already in a situation where they might die and you are giving them a last-ditch effort sometimes.” The extent of injury varies, as do the people. “There are guidelines, however; when and on whom we should be doing this is not completely set or accepted yet.”
Pioneering the Next Generation of MedTech
When Parekh was in her first year of her undergraduate engineering studies, she estimated that there were 10% women. In graduate school, she says that jumped to about 20%. And, now, in the biomedical engineering lectures she’s given, she happily reports that classes have been almost 40% women. “Biomedical engineering, especially, has gained a lot of traction for women,” Parekh says.
The way she sees it, not everyone should be encouraged into science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. “We need to create awareness and bring out the passion in people who are truly interested in it. That’s what’s going to drive the field forward. We can get the best out of people when they truly love it,” she says, “and we want people like that to grow into their passions.”
That aligns with recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Their projections are that STEM occupations will grow 10.4% between 2023 and 2033 (a much faster rate than the predicted overall workforce growth of 4%).
But what’s driving all of it—the facts, figures, awareness—is a passion for problem-solving.
There are always things in the pipeline, says Parekh. Then it becomes a matter of too many problems and not enough time to solve them all. “We wish we had time to work on every project that we wanted to,” she says. “COBRA-OS is a passion project. We truly, truly love, love, love it.”
This article originally appeared in the March/April 2025 issue of SUCCESS magazine.
Photo courtesy Asha Parekh, Ph.D.
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