LAS VEGAS – Necessity may be the mother of invention, but desperation is often the father. For Bob Rutan, desperation and necessity collided in the middle of the night when he literally cut cloth from his own T-shirt to fashion a CPAP mask liner for his suffering wife.
“After that, I fell asleep and woke up 7 hours later,” says Rutan (pictured), founder of Michigan-based Naturs Design. “I thought I had killed my wife, because she had not moved. She had not slept so well in a long time.”
That was five years ago, and the inspiration has blossomed into a 15-employee company that will soon exhibit its retail cash item (a 100% cotton CPAP liner called RemZzzs) at Medtrade Spring (Booth #943), scheduled for March 10-12 at Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas.
RemZzzs is one of many sleep-oriented products scheduled to exhibit at Medtrade Spring during a time of unprecedented academic and consumer attention lavished on sleep medicine. In Medtrade Monday alone, the last eight issues (including this one) have trumpeted results of sleep research from across the United States and abroad.
The interest in sleep is reflected in the exhibitor list at Medtrade Spring, which includes the following companies:
DeVilbiss Healthcare – Booth #927
Fisher And Paykel Healthcare – Booth #819
Graham-Field – Booth #619
Philips Respironics Inc – Booth #706
RemZzzs – Booth #943
ResMed – Booth #211
Roscoe Medical – Booth #411
Transcend – Booth #329
Medtrade Spring is 55 days away. CLICK HERE to register for the show which takes place March 10-12 at Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas.