Lightengale has flourished with EGC's support, bolstered by successful NIH and NSF grants and recognized by FDA programs for its innovative intravenous tubing system.

Client: Lightengale  .  Location: Atlanta, Georgia .  Years: 2019 – Present
Sector: Medical Device Company  .  Link: www.lightengalehealth.com


Like so many stories of inspiration in the healthcare industry, Lightengale starts with a tragedy. In 2014, Mr. Hans Utz, Lightengale Founder and CEO, and his wife had a baby boy born with a severe heart defect. He spent his entire short life in an ICU before his little heart finally failed. Mr. Utz sat for weeks beside his son’s bed with a front-row seat to the most advanced intensive care possible. He saw first-hand the extreme challenges of infusion therapy and the terrible burdens placed on nurses in that environment. He could not save his son, but he strongly felt that he could use his experience as an engineer and entrepreneur to help the nurses who cared so well for his little boy.

Lightengale began as a napkin sketch handed to a patent attorney and a series of light cables Scotch-taped together in Mr. Utz’s basement. The company was founded in 2018 and the first patent was finally awarded in early 2019.

In 2019, Lightengale engaged with EGC for the preparation and submission of a successful NIH Phase I STTR grant application that enabled the company to move from early stage prototype to a validated device for use in neonatal ICUs. In 2020 at the height of the pandemic, Mr. Hans knew that his lighted intravenous tubing could be modified for use with patients in hospital isolation. Lightengale once again worked with EGC to prepare a successful NSF Phase I STTR grant application to modify the light cables to be used with the longer intravenous tubing in hospital isolation.

Lightengale has received additional funding from the FDA Pediatric Device Consortium and were awarded FDA Safer Technologies Program (STeP) Designation for their intravenous tubing system.