St Vincent's invention

18 Dec 2020

St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne anaesthetist, Dr Matthew Matusik has invented an innovative oxygen mask that is set to be used in hospitals around the world.

Dr Matusik spent eight years perfecting the ‘SureflO2 Flow Indicator Oxygen Mask’. The main use of the mask is to confirm the presence or absence of oxygen flow just by looking at it.

“In the operating room, anaesthetists don’t have to lift the mask off the patient’s face and listen for hiss, which is a static check. They can simply look at the indicator, which can be seen from nine metres away, to see whether oxygen is flowing,” Dr Matusik said.

St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne Director of Anaesthesia, Professor David Scott said you can have a situation of transferring a patient at the end of their anaesthesia to the recovery room, where they need oxygen and oxygen is not flowing correctly.

“That’s the thing Matthew has picked up on. In this new COVID-19 era, we don’t want excess oxygen flowing through a face mask, which billows out from the sides and creates what we call plumes. If the patient has COVID-19, that plume could contain infectious material,” Profesor Scott said.

The TGA-approved invention has been trialled and rolled out at St Vincent’s with Dr Matusik generously donating the first 2000 masks.

“I’ve been at St Vincent’s since I was in med school, which is why I wanted the first worldwide launch of this new technology to be at St Vincent’s,” Dr Matusik said.

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