DEMOCRATIZING EXCELLENCE IN ACTION:

“Rainbow Runner” Expands the World for Kids on Ventilators

Babies born today at less than 25 weeks are beating the odds and surviving, but they face significant challenges. For one, they often face two years or more with a tracheostomy and a ventilator that enables them to breathe, which typically confines them to a hospital bed and robs them of the mobility so important to healthy development.

Looking for a way to improve the lives of these tiny patients, a team of therapists from UH Rainbow Babies & Children’s is hard at work on a solution. Supported by funding from Michael and Ellen Feuer via the Feuer Accelerator and UH Ventures, these clinicians are developing a mobile cart that secures the ventilator and tubing to the child, creating the mobility so necessary to the child’s growth and development.

The ventilator accessory in development, dubbed “Rainbow Runner,” would be unique in the pediatric marketplace. The UH therapists behind the idea are currently working with guidance from UH Ventures on a second-generation prototype and securing expert advice to maximize ventilator safety and optimize the design.

There is much work ahead. But team member Anna Maus, OTR/L, Supervisor in Pediatric Rehabilitation, Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy at UH Rainbow, says they’re excited about the potential Rainbow Runner creates for their young patients – and for others like them across the U.S.

“The more that we can facilitate those typical experiences, the better our patients’ outcomes are going to be,” she said. “There are so many kids all across the country that if they got this,