Current Press Releases
Healthcare that moves with People
Herald Journal, June 5, 2006
By Liz Hellmann
Staff Writer
Health care can be a stressful, but Jeff Schoess, owner of Korosensor in Howard Lake, is hoping to take the worry off of people’s minds by placing treatment options directly on the body. “Our mission statement is to develop body wearables technology,” Schoess said. Schoess bought the building in 2004 on Hwy 12, next to the bank in Howard Lake, to house the business he started in 2000. Korosensor is dedicated to sensor innovations for health care, and focuses on creating wearable designs, sensor, informatics, and bio-alerting. Korosensor houses an electronics lab, biomechanics lab, and prototyping area. Finite computer modeling software also enables the engineers to view 3-dimensional models of what they are working on, particularly skeletal structures. It might sound complicated, but what Schoess is striving toward with his medical inventions is to make an easier and more reliable way for people to take care of themselves. “Hopefully, it will lead to technology that will help you or I, especially as we get older,” Schoess said.
The work at Korosensor relies completely on grants from Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR). SBIR is a competitive program that encourages small businesses to work on high-tech innovation, which in turn, profit from commercialization of those innovations. The latest project for Korosensor is going forward as part of a $800,000 grant. The project is to devise a system to detect leakage in a colostomy (which is an incision into the colon to create an artificial opening for bodily waste to flow out of, usually to an attached bag). The system would sense when the colostomy was leaking, or about to leak, alerting the person to take care of it, which would help ward off infection. “It provides feedback to the patient,” Schoess said. “It’s really hands on,” Schoess said. Another example of the work Schoess is doing is a diabetic foot care wearable sensor. The sensor would help diabetics more accurately monitor the pressure they put on their feet with a device in the sole of their shoes. “Just having this information can be helpful,” Schoess said.Diabetics can then use this to avoid common foot problems caused by increased pressure and walking problems associated with their disease. No matter what the product, the goal is always the same at Korosensor – to make smart health care devices people can take with them.
Schoess comes into the industry with an electrical engineering degree and 18 years of experience at the Honeywell Technical Center conducting research.The team at Korosensor is made up of Schoess, Matt Larson, and Matt Rust. Larson was hired in January and is a mechanical engineer who graduated from South Dakota State University. Rust has been with the company for two years, since graduating from South Dakota State University with an electrical engineering degree. Schoess is hoping on expanding in the future, and possibly adding a part-time employee.
Electronic sensors with medical twist
Herald Journal, Nov. 29, 2004
By Darla Swanson
Since June of this year, Korosensor.com Inc. has occupied the former clinic building on Sixth Street in Howard Lake. President and CEO Jeffrey Schoess, along with his director of engineering, Matt Rust, provide a medical service of another kind. Korosensor doesnt offer face-to-face patient care as the clinic did, but through innovative technology it gives care to patients right in their homes. Were very pleased to be here, Schoess said. Well hopefully be an asset to the community. Founded in 2000, the company focuses on body-wearable sensing technology. Something that would be used in a medical application to promote the idea of self-care for a patient, Schoess explained.
The sensing technology that Schoess and Rust make are prototypes for manufacturers of specific health care products. Product manufacturers work with Korosensor to produce future products through intellectual licensing agreements. For example, people with diabetes may lose sensation in their feet, causing them to be more prone to injuries of the foot. Kicking a piece of furniture, for example, might cause an injury that could become infected. If the injury was not properly treated or would not heal, amputation could be necessary. Korosensors sensory device could be put into a shoe insert, replacing the patients natural sensation with artificial sensing. The technology is designed to help the patients help themselves and be able to manage their own health better, Schoess said. Korosensor is developing other sensoring devices, as well. One device will help monitor the healing progress of a bone fracture. Another apparatus will help patients suffering with sleep apnea. The body-wearable device would measure the respiratory rate of the patient while asleep. The device would work with diagnostic equipment that helps the patients doctor monitor and determine the severity of the condition. The emphasis, again, is on the patients self-care at home, where they are most comfortable, Schoess said. Schoess and Rust are also designing a device that will aid people who have a colostomy. A colostomy is a surgically created opening in the abdominal wall through which digested food passes. That waste is collected in an ostomy, a pouch the patient wears. The sensor would inform patients of potential leaks in their ostomies, giving them the opportunity to prevent it. Korosensor has plans to add another dimension, creating a device using smart material, which would actually prevent the leak, itself.
National Institutes of Health, through a small business innovative research grant, helps Korosensor fund its research and technology. Most recently, the Howard Lake firm received a $589,317 grant that will fund their work for two years. The money will specifically go toward developing a self-dispensing respiratory effort band to reliably detect subtle apnea and improve registration of sleep-disordered events, Schoess said. The effort band will be self-dispensed like a roll of tape, offering a low-cost disposable product that eliminates custom band sizes and tension setting via loop or buckle setting.The grant, administered by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute in Washington, DC, is a portion of the $20 billion a year that is granted for the development of new technology. The National Institutes of Health provides seed money to companies like Korosensor to help them get started and initiate new technology. Its good use of the taxpayers money, Schoess said.
The technology Korosensor is researching and developing is designed to promote patients independence. He emphasized that, for patients, the products will improve their lives and extend their health. Both Schoess and Rust live in Buffalo. Rust is a recent graduate of South Dakota State University with a degree in electrical engineering with an emphasis in biomedical engineering. Schoess is a University of Minnesota graduate in electrical engineering. He holds 15 American and European patents. He worked as a Honeywell corporate scientist for 16 years at the Honeywell Technology Center, which involved sensor research on projects such as the space shuttle, aircraft, and automobiles. Schoess said his current work stems from his Honeywell experience. Now, he works on sensors technology for people rather than the aerospace industry. Schoess said, The human side was a natural fit for me.
