If hospitals were to use Tidewave\u2019s moving mattress, they would kill two birds with one stone. Patients with limited mobility wouldn’t suffer from pressure ulcers, and nurses wouldn\u2019t have to make the effort of manually repositioning them, reducing the chances of back problems later in their lives, a new study shows. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nearly one in ten hospitalized patients suffers from pressure ulcers, an injury to skin and underlying tissue caused by prolonged pressure. This soreness can occur in a few hours, causing acute pain in the patients. The current hospital procedure is manual repositioning, which results in heavy lifting for the nurses. Moreover, due to the lack of hospital personnel, nurses don\u2019t have time to turn patients frequently enough, leading to pressure ulcers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s where Tidewave<\/a> wants to make a difference. The Norwegian medtech startup created a self-moving mattress that can turn the patient by itself. Being an all-in-one system equipped with both air cells and two-layer foam, the device starts curving into a U-shape, gently wrapping the patient. Then, the mattress starts moving slowly, tilting from one side to the other without the person on it noticing it. The mattress movement can be set differently, relieving nurses from the task and ensuring patients change their lying position. <\/p>\n\n\n The clinical study, conducted at the Sunnaas Hospital<\/a> in Bj\u00f8rnemyr, Norway, compared the innovative mattress with a dynamic air mattress combined with manual repositioning. In examining the differences between the two, the study found that the Tidewave\u2019s mattress increases pressure distribution, reducing strain on the body and removing the need for manual repositioning to be performed. Therefore, patients who need to lie on the bed for more extended periods \u2013 or those prone to pressure ulcers \u2013 see their chances of suffering from this injury reduced. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is good news for patients, health personnel, and the healthcare sector. In addition, more patients want to be able to stay at home for longer,\u201d says Dr. Ingebj\u00f8rg Irgens from the Sunnaas Hospital. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Undoubtedly, the study results are good news for Tidewave, too. \u201cHaving a clinical trial like this helps us enter new markets. We have been reaching out to distributors all around the world. From now on, we have a solid study to back our technology and to help us expand into more countries,\u201d says Bj\u00f8rn Lorentzen, CEO of Tidewave Medical. <\/p>\n\n\n The idea of a moving mattress is not a familiar one. Audun Haugs \u2013 the grandfather of one of Tidewave\u2019s cofounders, Elen Haugs \u2013 had already conceptualized the idea of a soft grip tool to move fragile objects to be used in the petroleum industry, decades ago, eventually realizing that the same principle could be applied to mattresses. Before he could finish his project, he unfortunately died very suddenly. Years later, it was up to his granddaughter to give new life to the idea. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Tidewave Medical came to be in 2017 and, since then, has further investigated the idea. As of today, its mattresses are distributed in Singapore, Australia, and Denmark. While waiting for approval to enter the German market \u2013 where it\u2019s also conducting two more clinical trials \u2013 the company is making the first steps to access the Dutch one. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn the past years, we also developed a pediatric version of our mattress,\u201d adds Lorentzen. As upgrades for the current technologies are in the making, the Norwegian company sees broadening its network and increasing production as its main targets. Soon, Tidewave will also work on finding new investors to complete its internationalization. \u201cWhat we want to do is to be the go-to way of preventing pressure ulcers,\u201d the CEO sums up. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If hospitals were to use Tidewave\u2019s moving mattress, they would kill two birds with one stone. Patients with limited mobility wouldn’t suffer from pressure ulcers, and nurses wouldn\u2019t have to make the effort of manually repositioning them, reducing the chances of back problems later in their lives, a new study shows. Nearly one in ten […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2084,"featured_media":511466,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[34665],"tags":[82470,82473,67669],"location":[59682],"article_type":[36684],"serie":[],"archives":[],"internal_archives":[],"reboot-archive":[],"class_list":["post-465065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-moving-mattress","tag-pressur-ulcer","tag-tidewave","location-norway","article_type-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"acf":{"subtitle":"Tidewave Medical, a Norwegian medtech startup, concluded a clinical trial that proved the validity of its moving mattress in improving patients' condition and reducing nurses\u2019 burden. ","text_display_homepage":false},"author_meta":{"display_name":"Mauro Mereu","author_link":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/author\/mauro-mereu\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/jhgRnwmy-Tidewave-70-scaled.jpg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["Health<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Health<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["moving mattress<\/a>","pressur ulcer<\/a>","Tidewave<\/a>"],"unlinked":["moving mattress<\/span>","pressur ulcer<\/span>","Tidewave<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 2 years ago","modified":"Updated 2 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on November 30, 2023","modified":"Updated on November 30, 2023"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on November 30, 2023 4:00 pm","modified":"Updated on November 30, 2023 4:00 pm"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2084"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465065"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=465065"},{"taxonomy":"article_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_type?post=465065"},{"taxonomy":"serie","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/serie?post=465065"},{"taxonomy":"archives","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/archives?post=465065"},{"taxonomy":"internal_archives","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/internal_archives?post=465065"},{"taxonomy":"reboot-archive","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reboot-archive?post=465065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The end of manual repositioning <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Decennia-old ideas and new standards<\/h2>\n\n\n\n