As a hospital assistant at UC Davis Medical Center, Tony Braham helps nurses lift and move patients for continence care, to reduce pressure ulcers due to lack of movement, among other things. In other words, “We’re the muscle of the hospital,” Braham says, and his startup aims to help “the muscle” be more mobile.

Based in Sacramento, RAIVES is a patented medical device Braham invented that helps organize medical equipment such as IVs, respiratory tubing and monitor cables in the intensive care unit. The name stands for Respiratory Airway IV Extension System. “It’s an acronym I came up with,” he says. “‘Hey, go get me a RAIVES clip.’ I thought it was catchy and easy for staff to adopt and remember.”

Hospital rooms typically have IVs and tubing and wires connected from monitors to patients. These lines run on the floor, which can cause accidents. Braham knows this because in 2016 he tripped over a temperature probe and nearly yanked out an IV. “Luckily enough, I didn’t dislodge an IV next to the temperature probe that was giving continuous life essential medications that, if dislodged, would put the patient in a critical condition,” he says.

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It was then that Braham came up with the idea for a clip that could keep the long lines off the floor to improve patient and staff safety and productivity. The startup launched in January 2019. The team of two includes Braham and Chris Anderson, who met at the Sacramento Entrepreneurship Academy, where they won Best Business Plan in 2019. 

For five and a half years, Krista O’Neill worked as a nurse at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, where Braham helped turn her patients. Now she is a cardiac surgery ICU nurse at Mercy General Hospital in Sacramento. Sometimes when patients come out of surgery, she says, the lines are all over the place and disorganized.

“I’ve seen nurses get creative,” O’Neill says. “We have a secondary IV tubing that has a clip — I’ve seen nurses use that. I’ve seen nurses use Popsicle sticks on the railing, I’ve seen them use tape. It looks unprofessional, but nurses do what we have to do.”

But these jury-rigged solutions can do only so much. There is nothing that is an all-in-one organizer, O’Neill says, adding that she told Braham she would love to do a RAIVES trial on her own unit. Not only would the clip help with organization and prevent tripping, but Braham also notes the ability to stave off potential infections.

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“Infection control is huge,” he says. “Nurses usually have to change IVs every three days. IVs are so long, they’re touching the floor. Nurses have to readjust them when they have to push a medication, so they’re grabbing IVs on the floor, throwing them on the bed.”

The clip would prevent the lines from touching the floor and picking up any germs or bacteria, he says. Braham has spoken to entrepreneurs who have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to push their products. He doesn’t have that kind of money, which is why he focuses on competitions to raise capital. Braham hopes to raise $500,000 by year’s end for molding, prototyping, packaging and distributing. 

RAIVES has been in the works for a few years,  and for the longest time, he felt like he was “in a canoe with one paddle, turning in circles,” he says. But Braham believes RAIVES will be extremely valuable to hospital workers on the front lines of patient care. “I’m in the actual room, looking at the problem every day and I’m like, ‘Man, if only we had this product to organize this stuff,’” he says.

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