The Texas Medical Center Innovation Institute in Houston welcomed 19 medical device startups to its accelerator program TMCx this week.
Every year, TMCx picks a handful of companies with innovative ideas or products and accelerates them to the market stage through rigorous curriculum that includes Food and Drug Administration regulation, HIPAA compliance, clinical trials, hospital procurement, commercial pilots, intellectual property and licensing, and fundraising.
The program gives startups access to the expertise of a network of more than 120 advisors, including clinical experts, medical researchers, executives and entrepreneurial leaders. This session marks the program's fifth installment.
Here are the 19 startups, along with a description of the medical device or technology they are developing, as listed by TMCx.
- Aesela (Houston) — Wearable photobiomodulation device designed to accelerate and enhance post-surgical recovery.
- Alleviant Medical (Houston) — Transcatheter technology to provide left atrial decompression and symptomatic relief for congestive heart failure.
- Bitome (Boston) — MRI-based diagnostic tool for noninvasive monitoring of the human hydration state.
- Dock Technologies (Madison, Wis.) — Electronic wristbands that provide a visual reminder of time elapsed, helping care teams quickly navigate complex treatment processes.
- Elsius Biomedical (Canada) — Portable Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation unit that includes a proprietary coating to enhance biocompatibility and prevent blood clots.
- Forest Devices (Pittsburgh) — Screening device that enables identification of stroke patients and triage to the right level of care.
- GuidaBot (Houston) — MRI-compatible robotic system that precisely targets areas of the brain during minimally-invasive neurosurgical procedures.
- iSono Health (San Francisco) — Accessible at-home breast health monitoring combining 3-D ultrasound and artificial intelligence.
- Multisensor Diagnostics (Baltimore) — Medical device that measures multiple vital signs by mouth in less than a minute.
- NanoEar Technologies (Houston) — Minimally-invasive, micro-implantable hearing aid.
- NAVi Medical Technologies (Australia) — Improving neonatal umbilical venous catheter (UVC) placements by providing clinicians with real-time feedback on the location of the catheter tip.
- Orphidia (San Francisco) — Portable blood diagnostic platform providing lab-quality test results in 20 minutes.
- PolyVascular (Houston) — Polymeric transcatheter valves for children with congenital heart disease.
- Raiing Medical (Boston) — Wearable device monitoring vital signs for connected health.
- Replete Biotics (Houston) — Standardizes fecal specimen processing while protecting bacterial community integrity and eliminating cross-contamination risks.
- Resthetics (Houston) — Device to convert waste anesthesia into a safe renewable resource.
- Sonavex (Baltimore) — Implantable device that utilizes ultrasound to detect blood clots after surgery.
- Vena Medical (Canada) — Making vascular procedures faster, easier and safer by providing physicians with a thin fiberoptic camera that sees through blood.
- Vitls (San Francisco) — Vital signs platform for continuous, remote monitoring.
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