By: Kirsten Millar
In a union of technological innovation and health care, a partnership has emerged between Prosaris, a local, cutting-edge leak and energy management company and Nova Scotia Health. This collaboration will focus on safety and efficiency and aims to reduce energy waste and therefore reduce costs and downtime.
Based out of Bedford, Prosaris was launched in 2017 by Colin Sewell, and has grown from a one man show to a 12-person team. “We evolved a lot over those first few years. We finished the product design around 2021 and we started working with partners in 2022,” says Sewell.
Their device resembles the size and shape of a hockey puck, and it’s able to detect leaks in gas, compressed air, and vacuum systems. Equipped with highly frequency sensitive microphones, the device detects sound waves to locate and quantify the leaks.
“Right now, our priority is to help companies strategically manage leaks of all kinds of gases. Medical facilities are a great place for our technology – the gases they use are important to operations, can sometimes be hazardous, and can be costly,” says Sewell. “Some gases are very expensive. And if you have leaks, you're wasting both energy and money.”
And it’s not just compressed gas that’s being wasted through leaks – compressed air is also a big culprit. “Used in hospitals to help distribute inhaled medications and anesthetics, leaks within compressed air systems can cause significant energy wastage,” says Sewell.
Sewell knew that the Prosaris technology could be of great help to health care facilities. He approached Nova Scotia Health to propose the partnership and Leanna MacLean, Director of Clinical Engineering at Nova Scotia Health, saw the value that this technology offered.
“In our current health care environment, where we are operating at high capacity and facing a high demand of our highly skilled technical resources, it is crucial to identify and implement solutions that enable our team members to work efficiently,” says MacLean. “The Prosaris solution removes the guesswork from troubleshooting, enabling our teams to work smarter, not harder. It's a no-brainer.”
Thanks to MacLean, the Prosaris team, and the hard work of many others involved, Nova Scotia Health has just launched a test and try of Prosaris’ leak detection technology.
“We’re testing the devices first at the Halifax Infirmary because the biomedical engineering lab is located there,” says David Kerr, Business Development Coordinator at the Nova Scotia Health Innovation Hub. “The devices are mobile, though, and could be used at different sites.”
The devices are being handled by biomedical engineering technicians doing repairs on machines, and by maintenance technicians to help with ongoing maintenance to facilities.
“We want to see how we can use this technology to help speed up our detection and identification of leaks and patching those so that we have less downtime in our facilitates,” says Kerr.
On top of improving efficiency, this technology could also help keep staff and patients safer by detecting potential gas leaks before they become a health threat.
“We see the health sector as an opportunity for our technology to make a meaningful difference. To have someone like Nova Scotia Health in our backyard allows us to interact with them daily and observe them while using the device. It’s invaluable for us,” says Sewell. “I'm hoping that we can learn from them and improve our solution to make it even more accessible and beneficial to health care systems globally.”
