Mike Griffiths, President and CEO, Advanced Oxygen Therapy Inc.

The burden of chronic wounds is rising. Known as the silent epidemic, chronic wounds which include Diabetic Foot Ulcers (DFU), Venous Leg Ulcers (VLU), and Pressure Ulcers (PU)are affecting more than 6.5 million people in the USA alone. And this number is likely to increase according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health. It is claimed that up to one-third of the half-billion people with diabetes worldwide will develop a DFU during their lifetime. Many patients with a DFU sadly progress onto an Amputation, and when it comes to patients who do not receive an amputation and are able to heal their ulcer, 40% of them are likely to have their ulcer reoccur within 1 year, 65% within 5 years, and greater than 90% within 10 years. With the prevalence of non-healing wounds increasing at such an unprecedented rate, it is posing a significant burden to the individual, the healthcare system, and society as a whole.

Cognizant of these facts, Michael Griffiths, DProf, DMS, CRT, FRSM, a clinician and seasoned medical device expert, along with his colleagues, decided to address the issue. Early clinical testing of their TWO2 therapy indicated that it could make a significant impact in both initial healing, and in stimulating better perfusion and quality of tissue to keep these wounds healed for the long term. This was kind of “Eureka” moment for Dr. Griffiths as TWO2 had the potential to not only meet an unmet clinical need and improve these poor suffering patients’ Quality of Life but also significantly help reduce exploding health care costs in the process. Thus, Advanced Oxygen Therapy Inc. (AOTI) was born in 2007 to develop a unique cyclical-pressure Topical Wound Oxygen (TWO2) therapy concept and deliver an effective homecare therapeutic.

Providing Proven Healing and Wound Protective Care Safely At Home

AOTI is dedicated to offering advanced wound care products that utilize its extensively patent-protected non-invasive Topical Wound Oxygen (TWO2) therapy to provide proven healing and wound protective care safely to patients in the convenience of their homes. Its cyclical-pressure TWO2 therapy is a true multi-modality approach that provides higher cyclical-pressure humidified oxygen to resolve non-healing wounds by reversing wound tissue hypoxia, stimulating the underlying cellular mechanisms required for tissue regeneration, creating non-contact sequential compression to reduce edema and promote perfusion, and creating an environment that destroys unwanted pathogens and combats infection.

These multi-modal features have been proven now in numerous clinical studies in both DFU and VLU, including a recent state-of-the-art Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) published in the prestigious journal of the American Diabetes Association (ADA), Diabetes Care, to provide six-fold better complete and durable healing outcomes over 12 and 36months, in DFU and VLU respectively. TWO2 therapy has been shown effective in closing previously un responsive wounds, saving limbs, reducing overall healthcare costs, and greatly improving patients’ quality of life. Recently, AOTI released a larger size version of its single-use extremity chamber that allows it to expand treatments to patients while undergoing compression therapy with CCD or UNNA boots, and even those in Total Contact Casting offloading.

Helping Maintain Continuity-Of-Care during the Pandemic

Clinically proven home care therapeutics that better address life-debilitating diseases are needed now more than ever as we enter the new normal following the current COVID-19 pandemic. AOTI is effectively delivering clinically proven wound healing modalities safely at home so that the most afflicted can receive optimal care. Unlike many other adjunctive therapies, TWO2 has demonstrated far superior clinical and health economical outcomes, and once ordered by the prescriber and set-up by the care team, it can be easily applied by the patient at home, without the need for clinic visits related to its utilization. In addition, AOTI’s patient care team provides the prescriber complimentary Telehealth information that includes wound image reports to enable them to effectively track wound progress remotely, as well as offering two-way consultation capabilities. This helps these high-risk patients to maintain continuity of care safely in their homes.

“As an accredited home care provider, we are privileged to manage care with our patients applying TWO2 therapy safely in their homes. We take this responsibility very seriously and the current pandemic has only further emphasized its importance, as many of these patients are at high risk of serious illness due to the COVID-19 virus,” opines Dr. Griffiths.

Supported by a Cohesive, Ardent and Dedicated Team

The entire team at AOTI is committed to the ethos of providing ethical and compassionate patient care first, above all else. This has translated into its ongoing prestigious growth in the number of prescribers ordering, and patients receiving TWO2 therapy. “Our clients are the patients, and the podiatric surgeons, vascular surgeons, plastic surgeons, orthopedic surgeons, and wound care nurses that treat their wounds. We estimate that over 1.5 million homecare treatments of TWO2 therapy have been delivered to date,” affirms Dr. Griffiths.

In the wake of Covid-19, the entire team at AOT I have unselfishly performed their essential functions supporting the treatment of patients on TWO2 to help as many as possible to stay out of the hospital and heal safely at home, providing some relief to the heroic over extended frontline medical providers.

“During the pandemic, we have been trying to acknowledge and give back to these health care heroes wherever possible. One way we have achieved this has been by sponsoring a series of clinical education webinars, where prescribers can attain their needed continuing medical education credits, during a time that normal face-to-face conferences have been curtailed,” adds Dr. Griffiths.

Continuing to Heal Wounds and Improving Patients’ Quality Of Life

AOTI works closely and in partnership with the prescribers of its therapy to guarantee that patient care always comes first. Being tireless champions of evidence-driven medicine, it aims to continue supporting further high-quality clinical trials in the coming years.

“Our future goals are to continue developing the already significant clinical and health economic evidence base while attaining broader reimbursement coverage so that more patients can experience the complete durable wound healing benefits of TWO2 therapy. In turn, this will significantly help improve more patients’ quality of life and reduce the cost of the exploding chronic wound epidemic,” concludes Dr. Griffiths.