# Personal Respiratory Isolation System for Safe Transport and Treatment of Patients with Highly Transmissible Infectious Diseases

> **NIH NIH R44** · INSPIRE RX LLC · 2024 · $842,408

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY: The goal of this project is to develop a solution that allows for rapid, safe, and
scalable initial treatment and transport of patients with highly transmissible infectious diseases, including
COVID-19 as well influenza, tuberculosis, chickenpox, and measles. This is a necessary innovation because
resource management and infectious transmission control were two of the greatest challenges healthcare
providers faced when fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. When a patient is suffering from highly transmissible
respiratory diseases and requires breathing assistance, they are placed in negative pressure rooms.
However, given the limited supply of negative pressure rooms available to prevent virus transmission, and
the misperception regarding the safety and effectiveness of negative pressure rooms, a new solution is
needed. To help prevent the spread of highly transmissible infectious diseases, start-up company Inspire Rx
has developed a personal negative pressure device called the AerosolVE™ BioHelmet. The BioHelmet is
capable of preventing the spread of aerosolized pathogens while also enabling the use of non-invasive
oxygen therapies on patients with respiratory diseases such as COVID-19, influenza, tuberculosis, etc. The
negative pressure AerosolVE™ BioHelmet immediately isolates patients with any highly transmissible
respiratory infectious disease and serves as an instant personal negative pressure environment that is more
effective than a traditional negative pressure room. The BioHelmet is intended to provide safe transportation
via ambulance, airplane, or helicopter, allowing critical transportation staff to remain safe, and it will be
valuable in a variety of other healthcare settings. In this project the team will refine and further evaluate the
AerosolVE BioHelmet, and they will leverage data from their previous in-cabin particle testing to advance the
BioHelmet as an effective tool at keeping a vehicle/transport cabin free from potentially pathogenic
respiratory particles. They will first refine the BioHelmet design to reduce noise and weight, and they will
fabricate 100 AerosolVE BioHelmets and 20 pump units for follow-on bench testing and clinical user
evaluations (Aim 1). They will conduct performance and bench testing at FDA-approved labs to ensure the
safety and efficacy of the AerosolVE BioHelmet per FDA guidelines (Aim 2). They will deploy the helmet for
clinical patient use during ground and air ambulance transportation of patients with suspected or confirmed
communicable respiratory illness, including those requiring potential aerosol-generating procedures, and the
purpose of this will be to obtain user feedback on comfort and east of use from patients and providers (Aim
3). The BioHelmet will provide a novel, compact, portable, and inexpensive solution that offers a safe
negative pressure environment both inside and outside the hospital, which will ultimately save lives by
allowing for needed patient treatments and pr...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10921430
- **Project number:** 1R44HL174366-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** INSPIRE RX LLC
- **Principal Investigator:** Sridhar Kota
- **Activity code:** R44 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $842,408
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-09-18 → 2026-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10921430

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10921430, Personal Respiratory Isolation System for Safe Transport and Treatment of Patients with Highly Transmissible Infectious Diseases (1R44HL174366-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-27 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10921430. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*