Company brings iPhones into operating room

A Kennebunk company has developed an iPhone application to help with open-heart surgery, but it’s nothing like the children’s game “Operation.”

“A lot of iPhone apps are toys, but this is a tool, an essential medical tool,” said Kevin Springer, the director of business development at Headspace Design.

Springer worked with his longtime friend, Bryan Lich, to come up with the first application of its kind.

“We looked everywhere to see if there was anything else like it,” Springer said. “There was nothing.”

Springer said his design company, based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, with a new branch in Kennebunk, had the technology to build an iPhone application, but not the knowledge to lend that application to the medical field.

Springer called Lich, who had been working on heart perfusion machines for many years. Perfusion machines keep the heart pumping and blood oxygenated during open-heart surgery. Lich also runs the website Perfusion.com that offers articles and equipment to hospitals.

“We’d done business together in the past and the idea came to me that the iPhone app might be perfect for him because a great many doctors have an iPhone or a smart phone on their hip,” Springer said.

The application is not a medical device itself, but offers a variety of formulas and mathematical equations related to blood-oxygen levels and cell counts – vital information during the actual surgery process. The application would be used to help tabulate formulas needed to operate the machines at a touch of a button, instead of the longer route using a calculator.

The application also runs an up-to-the minute news feed about the latest information in most medical journals.

Springer said they are still working out some last-minute kinks and the application should be available by the end of the month. According to Springer, no cost has been set on the application, but he said it may be free – at least in the beginning. Instead of making money, Lich hopes to use the application as a marketing tool to increase the visibility of other profusion-related products and services he offers.

Cul-de-sac no more after access road is completed

Work is complete turning a Kennebunk neighborhood’s cul-de-sac into a through street.

Residents on Donroven Drive and the surrounding neighborhood in March filed an appeal in York County Superior Court over the town’s decision to open a second access to the cul-de-sac. The road increases access to St. Martha Parish.

Some neighbors, led by Patti Peach-Lambert, contended they were not notified the plan was going to the review board in October, months after the board asked the church to prepare an up-to-date traffic study.

The court has not ruled in the case yet.

Peach-Lambert’s home is on Longview Terrace and overlooks the former cul-de-sac. She has owned her home for eight years and said she bought it because of the quiet neighborhood. She said in February she was concerned the new access road would create noise and more traffic in the area.

Parish officials said the new access road was needed to allow a safer exit for visitors trying to access the Route 1 church. The road allows church patrons to go through the parking lot of St. Martha to Donroven Drive, which leads to a stoplight on Route 1 across from Dunkin’ Donuts.

The Kennebunk Site Plan Review Board originally approved the plan in October. The board determined the project should not be stopped because the land is owned by the church and town.

–Compiled by Suzanne Hodgson