Innara Health Announces Co-Marketing Agreement With GE Healthcare To Advance Oral Feeding And Neurodevelopment Of Premature Infants

Olathe, March 21, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --

Innara Health Announces Co-Marketing Agreement with GE Healthcare to Advance Oral Feeding and Neurodevelopment of Premature Infants

Olathe, KS — Innara Health, a leader in neurodevelopmental care and neonatal oral feeding therapy and assessment technologies, today announced a joint marketing agreement with GE Healthcare. GE Healthcare is a leader in offering solutions supporting maternal and neonatal care from labor through delivery and post-delivery care. With prematurity as the leading cause of death for newborns worldwide, GE Healthcare works to provide solutions that not only help clinicians save the lives of preterm babies but also help them go home as healthy as possible. This relationship seeks to protect and support the neurodevelopment of infants, which is critical at this stage of life.

Under this Agreement, Innara Health and GE Healthcare will jointly promote the GE Healthcare perinatal solutions with the NTrainer System as an enhancement to current clinical practices used to support the development of premature and newborn infants who struggle with oral feeding. This relationship will uniquely position Innara Health to intensify efforts focused on the challenges associated with oral feeding competencies of premature infants, and the related delays in neurological development.

The American Academy of Pediatrics identifies healthy oral feeding as one of the essential competencies necessary for hospital discharge. It is estimated that over 50% of the approximately 500,000 babies born prematurely each year will struggle with oral feeding deficiencies, which prevent successful breast or bottle feeding. The NTrainer System expands healthcare system capabilities with objective therapy and assessment of nonnutritive suck (NNS), a neurologically based, oral feeding readiness skill. The NTrainer is the only FDA-cleared technology available that provides oral motor therapy clinically validated to improve oral feeding readiness.

“This relationship allows Innara Health to build on the initial success of the NTrainer System and significantly expands our market reach” stated Michael Peck, president and CEO of Innara Health. “As a leader in neonatal solutions, GE Healthcare brings deep NICU experience. This relationship extends Innara Health’s capacity to focus on the clinical improvements, cost reductions and family satisfaction goals of healthcare.”

Clinical research supports the use of the NTrainer System as part of an evidence-based approach to infant feeding in the NICU, and with the resulting improvements in transitioning to independent oral feeding, reduce the requirement for feeding tubes. The added impact of reducing length of stay (LOS) in the NICU suggests that oral stimulation – like that provided by the NTrainer System – not only enhances infants’ oral feeding but supports the developmental progression of necessary skill acquisition.

“At GE Healthcare, we are at work every day to help clinicians send moms and babies home healthy,” said Tammy Noll, General Manager of Maternal Infant Care at GE Healthcare. “This relationship is focused on newborn neurodevelopment – which is impacted by many factors in the first stage of life – to ensure a healthy development. At Maternal Infant Care, reducing death and disability, length of stay, and hospital readmissions of newborns, is our primary goal. As a company, we aim to provide holistic solutions, across the entire perinatal space, that positively impact clinical outcomes.”

“Innara Health and GE Healthcare affirm our joint commitment to advance the care of premature infants,” said Michael Peck, president and CEO of Innara Health. “Improving oral feeding skills in the NICU impacts healthcare providers, but more importantly, shortens the separation parents experience with their infant remaining in the NICU. As the healthcare industry continues to seek opportunities to improve patient outcomes, clinical efficiency and financial improvements, we are excited to work with GE Healthcare and offer solutions designed to support the challenges of caring for the most fragile patients.”

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About Innara Health
Innara Health’s mission is to advance the global understanding and improvement of neonatal, pediatric and adult feeding. The company offers the FDA-cleared NTrainer System, the first neonatal technology that assesses and develops non-nutritive suck (NNS) for newborns and infants born prematurely. Neonatal clinicians use the NTrainer System in children’s hospitals, medical centers and rehabilitation hospitals. For more information, visit innarahealth.com.