CategoriesCPAP,  Health,  On the Road,  Sleep

New strides in travel

Summer is here! Here are some new products designed to help patients travel easier and faster at the airport, on the road, or off the path.

H2Doze CPAP Water

H2Doze CPAP Water is a great new way to maintain health when traveling with sleep apnea.

Even though most patients know distilled water is essential for CPAP treatment, it’s often hard to find small enough portions when traveling.

Each bottle of H2Doze is labeled so that patients can check it right through airport security. It is cleared by TSA and FAA as medically necessary when accompanied by a CPAP machine.

Patients who travel often may also want to incorporate H2Doze into their regular at-home treatment routine. That way there’s no wasted water to pour out from those gallon jugs!

One 16.9 ounce bottle of H2Doze covers two nights of use.

Portable CPAP Battery

The new Portable CPAP Battery fits in a handbag or small luggage pocket and has even more capabilities and features to benefit patients.

The battery has 110 volts, which means patients can run a CPAP machine for up to 14 hours. Patients can now also use the battery to run their other devices, such as laptops or curling irons.

The two USB outlets next to the AC outlet can charge cell phones even while running a CPAP machine.

This would be a great item for patients traveling in groups or with family!

Transcend 3 miniCPAP

 

The Transcend miniCPAP line helps free patients from the constraints of daily CPAP treatment whether traveling or at home.

They’re the smallest, lightest CPAP devices!

The new Transcend 3 is an upgrade on the classic model. It has a sturdier base and a new swivel nozzle to improve comfort. It’s still compact enough to fit in one hand, and it still weighs less than a pound.

Transcend 3 is also FAA approved, so patients can use it in flight. It’s a go-anywhere device.

Mini Mesh Nebulizer

Sunset’s portable Mini Mesh Nebulizer is our newest great value option for asthma patients.

We think this mini nebulizer is a fun entry into the portable market! It’s handheld, quiet and fast.

Our Mini Mesh Nebulizer is also very attainable — it’s a great option for cost-conscious patients. The NEB400 makes it possible for patients to leave compressor nebulizers at home.

It runs on just two AA batteries or any USB port.

*

Sunset will be on the road again this September for the HME News Business Summit in Cleveland, and at Medtrade Atlanta this fall. We hope to see you there!

CategoriesBusiness,  Company Culture,  Health,  Reading Lists,  Science and Culture,  Sleep,  Uncategorized

Sunset’s Winter Reading

Brrr . . . winter weather is here!

Here are just a few of the intriguing books Sunset Healthcare Solutions staff members have lined up to read during the coldest time of the year. Please let us know if you decide to read along!

 

Why We Sleep, Matthew Walker


“A thoughtful tour through the still dimly understood state of being asleep … Why We Sleep is a book on a mission. Walker is in love with sleep and wants us to fall in love with sleep, too. And it is urgent. He makes the argument, persuasively, that we are in the midst of a ‘silent sleep loss epidemic’ that poses ‘the greatest public health challenge we face in the 21st century’ … Why We Sleep mounts a persuasive, exuberant case for addressing our societal sleep deficit and for the virtues of sleep itself. It is recommended for night-table reading in the most pragmatic sense.”
New York Times Book Review

Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance, Alex Hutchinson


“Want to achieve more? Often that means you have to do more — and Alex will show you how.”
—Inc. (”6 Great Business Books to Read in 2018”)

Silence, Erling Kagge

“The book expands the concepts of silence and noise beyond their aural definitions and engages with modern culture’s information overload, need for constant connection, and cult of busyness….Great pleasure lies in Kagge’s creative investigations. The reader leaves more mindful of the swirl of distraction present in everyday life.”
—Publishers Weekly

When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing, Daniel H. Pink

“Daniel H. Pink’s deeply researched but never boring study could be a turning point. College students and business managers alike may find new ways to organize their schedules and ease difficult decisions by using the ‘hidden pattern’ of time to their advantage.”
—Wall Street Journal

Can’t Hurt Me, David Goggins

“Guaranteed to galvanize more than a few couch potatoes into action.”
— Kirkus Reviews

Sleep: The Myth of 8 Hours, the Power of Naps, and the New Plan to Recharge Your Body and Mind, Nick Littlehales

“Nick Littlehales has reconfigured the bedrooms of a legion of international sporting stars . . . He has a unique and encyclopedic knowledge.”
Guardian

The Bright Hour: A Memoir of Living and Dying, Nina Riggs

“Moving and insightful…Riggs writes with humor; the memoir is rife with witty one-liners and musings on the joys and challenges of mothering and observations on the importance of loving relationships…In this tender memoir Riggs displays a keen awareness of and reverence for all the moments of life—both the light, and the dark, ‘the cruel, and the beautiful.’”
Publishers Weekly (starred review)

CategoriesScience and Culture,  Uncategorized

Out of the Mist: What’s Inside the Mesh Nebulizer?

The nebulizer is an essential and evolving method for treating COPD, asthma, and respiratory symptoms with aeresolized medication.

At Sunset, we hold this personal aide in high regard. We proudly manufacture our own Compressor Nebulizer and Handheld Compressor Nebulizer, and we’ve recently incorporated the Flyp Portable Nebulizer—a truly sophisticated device!

We’re fascinated by the nebulizer’s international roots, from German steam inhalers to hand bulb nebulizers, vaporizers and atomizers.

In the 1960s, when engineers experimented with heat and ultrasonic technology, they produced sleeker, more portable devices—incorporating frequency and pressure to produce finer medication particles and faster treatment.

The Pulverisateur, 1858 (Photo courtesy of Mark Sanders & AARC Virtual Museum)

Vibrating Mesh Technology (VMT), which emerged in the 1990s, still stands as a breakthrough discovery for the industry. VMT aeresolizes medication through a tiny, vibrating disk with over a thousand laser-drilled holes. Presently, VMT fuels a family of devices celebrated for their ultra rapid treatment time, low noise and petite size: the mesh nebulizers.

But, how can these portable, often handheld devices produce such power? Or, why aren’t we still using the portable, bicycle pump-styled nebulizer known in 1800s France as “the Pulverisateur”?

The answer is piezoelectricity —which is a mysterious-sounding word we should investigate.

Piezo·electricity

Did you know that the word “electricity” pulls from the classic Greek word elektron, which translates to “amber”—as in, the gem?

Though we often use it as an ornament, amber is actually fossilized tree resin that was an ancient curiosity due to its mysterious attributes.

Amber (Josh Blaine)

According to popular lore, Greek scientists noticed that the sun-toned stone attracted bits of fiber—and attempts to remove the material by rubbing it merely intensified the magnetic effect.

Though the first study on piezoelectricity emerged in France in 1880 (just after the Pulverisateur), this amber exercise is still used in grade school science lessons to demonstrate the phenomenon of electrostatic charge.

The Greek tale—specifically, their futile attempts to rub the fabric off—produced the prefix piezo, which is Greek for “to press,” or squeeze.

So, “piezoelectricity” simply refers to the electrical charge that accumulates in certain solids (like amber) when they are pressed, or undergo changes in pressure.

However! Further research tells us that not just any solid will work.

Topaz and tourmaline are piezoelectric—but glass is not. Piezoelectric material is almost always a crystal or ceramic solid, as both tend to have symmetrical atomic structures that can convert one type of energy to another (…more on this later). Of the crystals, quartz is the most commonly used piezoelectric material.

How does it work?

If you were to physically squeeze a piece of quartz, an invisible electrical charge would flow through it.

What’s happening, is that the pressure is changing the arrangement of its symmetrical atomic structure. Some of the atoms are drawing closer to each other and others further apart. This effect causes the crystal to “polarize,” sending positive charge to one side of the material and negative charge to the other, like a magnet. Or a tiny battery.

With the same concept, when engineers pass voltage through the quartz, the atoms squeeze themselves, vibrating back and forth and creating a charge. It’s this second feature that makes small devices run.

Quartz watches and clocks operate by this principle of piezoelectricity. Electrodes connect to an internal quartz crystal, charging it with a signal. When the quartz polarizes, it produces a reliable time-keeping frequency!

A contact microphone (Patrick Lauke)

The contact microphone is another great example of piezo power. This tiny device contains a piezo assembly—either ceramic or a very thin layer of crystals, mounted on a disk—that can convert sound wave vibrations into amplified sound.

Acoustic musicians often mount these microphones directly onto their instruments, plugging the attached cable into an amplifier or recording unit. When the instrument emits sound wave vibration, the piezo disk converts this to audible sound—and boosts quieter instruments like violin… or ukelele!

Mesh nebulizers

Unlike jet, or compressor, nebulizers and most ultrasonic models, the mesh nebulizer almost always utilizes a piezoelectric assembly. This setup is ideal for these sleek, pared down handhelds, with their small but extremely mighty vibrating internal disks.

Flyp’s internal disk

At Convexity Scientific, Chief Commercial Officer Geoff Matous explains that the pocket-sized Flyp Portable Nebulizer uses piezoelectric technology to fuel its powerhouse mesh disk, which vibrates almost silently at the speed of 111,000 times per second!

“The piezoelectric assembly is a ceramic ring plus stainless steel mesh that sits directly in contact with the medication in the reservoir,” explains Matous.

Since Flyp’s piezo disk is right up against the solution, Matous explains, it is technically categorized as an “active” mesh nebulizer. Passive mesh nebulizers generally have a disk and a separate piezo element or horn, which generates frequencies to push the fluid up through the disk.

When Flyp’s piezo disk becomes polarized by the surrounding signal of voltage, frequency and wave form, it vibrates and moves medication organically through its holes, producing micro droplets and a consistent, inhalable mist.

One clinical application difference to note between active and passive mesh nebulizers is that delivery performance with suspensionmedication—Budesonide, for example—is commonly more reliable with active mesh. Presumably, the internal layout also contributes to the active mesh nebulizer’s compact size.

De-mist-ified

Flyp Portable Nebulizer

So, the next time you pick up your mesh nebulizer, think of the unique and fascinating technology that’s fueling it.

In addition to helping you maintain optimal health, it might lead to an interesting conversation!

01-Here-for-you

Here for you more than ever

Count on Sunset for tailored service and the creative solutions you need

02-Consistent-great-value

Consistent great value

Choose from the highest quality products available at a low price point

03-Live-support

Live support

Speak directly to a member of our growing and connected sales team

04-Customized-packaging

Customized packaging

Benefit from the most flexible packaging options in the industry

Contact

Sunset Healthcare Solutions
141 W Jackson Blvd Ste 1950
Chicago IL 60604

Phone: 877-578-6738
Fax: 312-997-9985

Copyright © 2024 Sunset Healthcare Solutions. All Rights Reserved.

Add to cart