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Media Contact: Pete Cunningham | 734-255-2611 | [email protected]
Lexington company CCB Research Group receives patent on medical device
used to help infants struggling to feed
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Lexington-based medical device company CCB Research Group wants to help babies struggling to
feed on their own, get into the arms of their mothers and get home. The company took a huge step in that direction this
week.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office issued a patent to CCB Research Group Tuesday, March 4, 2014, for a
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device which will be used to assess and assist newborns struggling to feed. The device – NFANT Technology – is
attached to a bottle or pacifier and measures an infant’s tongue strength while in the act of sucking or feeding.
On average, 560,000 newborns are admitted to the Neonatal
Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and 40 to 70% experience feeding
complications. Tongue strength has shown to be a predictor
of swallowing and feeding ability in adults and animals, but
there has never been a non-invasive device that accurately
measures tongue strength in newborns while they are trying
to feed.
That is until CCB Research Group co-founders Tommy Cunningham, Ph.D., Gilson Capilouto, Ph.D., and Timothy
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Butterfield, Ph.D. invented the recently patented NFANT Technology.
Capilouto and her research team at University of Kentucky Children’s Hospital are undergoing clinical trials to determine if
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NFANT Technology’s assessment of tongue strength is an accurate predictor of feeding ability in infants. With this
information, CCB Research Group hopes to empower clinicians with the tools and data needed to safely and effectively
transition newborns off of feeding tubes, reduce the length of NICU stays and, most importantly, get babies into the arms
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of their mothers. The patenting of NFANT Technology brings the team one step closer to that goal.
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Initial development of NFANT was supported by a grant from the Kentucky Science and Engineering Foundation with
additional support from the University of Kentucky College of Health Sciences Office of Research.
For more information on CCB Research Group and NFANT
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Technology, visit www.ccbresearchgroup.com.
About CCB Research Group
CCB Research Group is developing NFANT™ Technology, a medical device that allows a normal pacifier or baby bottle to
become a SMART pacifier or baby bottle. NFANT™ Pacifier & Bottle non-invasively takes measurements on how the
infant is sucking on the nipple and relays that information to a mobile device. This information may allow clinicians to
better understand when an infant is ready to transition from tube-feeding to feeding on their own in the NICU.
Trying to feed an infant when they are not ready can introduce serious complications such as apnea (stopped breathing),
aspiration (fluid in the lungs) and bradycardia (slowed heart). This increases stress and delays discharge for premature
infants in the NICU.
Unfortunately, 40-70 percent of preterm infants experience complications in transitioning to independent oral feeding.
These complications cause delays ranging from 2-45 days at a cost of $2,000-$6,000 per day. Decreasing the average
length of stay in the NICU by just 2 days is estimated to save the U.S. Healthcare system nearly $2 Billion, annually.
The recently patented NFANT™ Technology may provide a simple solution to provide clinicians with the information they
need to help get infants out of the NICU and home to their families.
Contact:
Pete Cunningham, Director of Media Relations, CCB Research Group
Phone: 734-255-2611; Email: [email protected]

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