2021 Core 77 Design Award Winner
The Ex-Vivo Organ Support System (EVOSS) is a medical device created to facilitate the transplant of human lungs. The EVOSS is the first organ support system to provide conditions similar to that of a human body for donor lungs during transport. With EVOSS, donated human lungs en route to recipients remain warm, alive and breathing, in conditions that closely replicate that of a healthy human body. Donated organs are the ultimate gift, the EVOSS system seeks to honor this gift by maximizing the potential for successful transplants.
The system was designed from the lungs outward to create an environment as similar to the human body as possible. This a dramatic departure from the current standard of care which is cold, static storage in which organs are transported on ice with no blood-flow or respiration.
Body like conditions are created through the perfusion (circulation) of a blood-like, therapeutic solution at normal body temperatures and breathing via mechanical ventilation. The lungs expand and contract using negative pressure ventilation which closely mimics the body’s natural means of respiration. This is more physiologic and far less damaging than inflating lungs using positive pressure as with traditional ventilators. Operating in the same natural way human bodies do, EVOSS provides the ideal vehicle for lungs and the ability for transplant teams to monitor and evaluate lungs in transit.
