A U.S. university is going to begin clinical trials of a device invented by McMaster University students that shows users how to correctly perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation, an Ontario agency says.   

The University of Pennsylvania department of emergency medicine's Center for Resuscitation Science will test the CPRGlove in early 2008, the Ontario Centres of Excellence said Wednesday.

Nilesh Patel demonstrates the CPRGlove in Hamilton in March 2007. The black glove is designed to guide people in performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Nilesh Patel demonstrates the CPRGlove in Hamilton in March 2007. The black glove is designed to guide people in performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
(Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)

The Ontario agency, which supports innovation, said it is giving $80,000 to Atreo Medical Inc., the company which is trying to sell the device. The money will support market analysis, product development and lining up a design and manufacturing partner.

Atreo's website said it aims to make the glove a standard part of first-aid kits.

While CPR is widely taught in North America, trainees quickly forget the proper method of performing the life-saving intervention for people suffering cardiac arrest, the website said.

The glove is aimed at fixing that, using an LCD screen and sensors that tell users where they should place their hands, the depth, force and rate of compressions needed, and the victim's heart rate.

The glove could be used in CPR training, to maintain CPR quality through testing, and in real emergencies.

The inventors — McMaster electrical and biomedical engineering students Corey Centen and Nilesh Patel — set up Atreo with fellow student Sarah Smith to market the glove.

All three took CPR training in high school, but doubted they could confidently perform CPR in an emergency. 

"That got us thinking about how we could use our biomedical engineering background to develop a technology," Smith said in a news release.

The device has been widely recognized. In November, Centen and Patel won the U.S. Collegiate Inventors Competition's undergraduate category award, and Time Magazine selected the glove as one of the best health inventions of 2007.