Sora: Saving Lives with Organized Rescue Assets and Just-In-Time Guidance
Having previously created a no-tech cabinet for public access naloxone for opioid overdose that now is nationally distributed, co-founder Dr. Geoff Capraro joined forces with Dr. Leo Kobayashi and full stack developer Krister Olsson to develop Sora. Sora™ (System for On-scene Rescue Actions) is a smart cabinet born from its emergency medicine physician co-founders' insight that it's oftentimes action[s] taken on-scene that spell the difference between life and death. Both Dr. Capraro and Dr. Kobayashi have more than 20 years of experience at Level 1 trauma centers as ER physicians–in the case of Dr. Capraro, specifically pediatric medicine. After partnering up with veteran software developer Krister Olsson, Sora is poised to tackle one of emergency medical care's most insidious factors–time.
In the US alone, there are an estimated 140,000 deaths annually due to opioid overdose and hemorrhage combined; and opioid deaths alone cost an estimated–and staggering–$550B USD economic burden each year. What's more, EMS response times vary widely across the nation; in rural areas, 1 in every 10 EMS calls approaches a 30 minute wait time, due to a breadth of factors such as geography, terrain, population and more. That is a significant timelapse compared to the 7 minute national average. This delay can cost not only precious minutes of care for on-scene responders, but also fatal outcomes in the most tragic cases. Would-be rescuers—medically trained or untrained—often step up to help, but have limited public access to various rescue tools that can save a life from overdose, traumatic bleeding, and other medical emergencies. Sora aims to solve this.
Taking a look at the proven success of public AED implementation that addresses sudden cardiac arrest, up until now there has been limited public access to simple, effective lifesaving supplies to reverse overdose or stop hemorrhage, despite the staggering statistics of each. A simple and elegant solution, Sora takes form as publicly-accessible storage containers that provide and monitor rescue supplies such as Naloxone (proven to reverse opioid overdoses) and Bleed Kits (tourniquets, compression bandages, and hemostatic dressings), so that they are accessible to the people present in a moment of crisis. To help increase the likelihood and readiness of bystander support, Just-In-Time instructions are inside the container with clear step-by-step directions, as well as Learn-Ahead instructions linked to a QR code on every container.
So what exactly does this look like from an operational standpoint? By pairing life-saving tools with cellular technology, Sora is able to reduce the labor, cost, and audit trail challenges involved in monitoring and maintaining rescue boxes. In field testing alone, Sora's technology provided notifications of rescue tool access and use to site managers in nine successful rescues. For Emergency Managers & 911 Dispatchers, Sora can provide tandem support layers to existing protocols, such as mapped locations to direct callers to tools.
How Sora and NEMIC Have Partnered
In 2021, Sora (then named AdvanceBox) founders completed NEMIC’s signature MedTech Leadership Program [MTLP], followed by being accepted into the highly competitive NEMIC Accelerator Program in 2022, funded through RI DLT and Rhode Island Commerce respectively. NEMIC worked with Sora (AdvanceBox) on key areas such as business advisory, development costs and funding mechanisms, market research, deck development, and more. Sora has received more than $16,000 of program funding and in-kind services as well as $100,000 in RI Commerce Innovation Vouchers and $295,000 in NIH NICHD SBIR Phase 1 grant funds. As the company continues to hit development milestones, Sora is seeking a seed investment of $500k, for an 18-month runway to Series A funding. Through a multi-prong sales & distribution strategy, and its innovative technology, Sora is set to help its customers save more lives.
