The Texas Medical Center Innovation Institute in Houston welcomed 11 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 thatincludes FDA regulation, HIPAA and HITECH compliance, clinical trials, hospital procurement, commercial pilots, intellectual property and licensing, and fundraising.
The program contains a network of more than 120 advisors, including clinical experts, medical researchers, executives and entrepreneurial leaders that provide guidance to the startups.
This year marks the third installment of the program and the first time TMCx has focused exclusively on medical devices.
Applications for the fourth TMCx class — focused on digital health — will be open for submission on August 17.
Here are the 11 startups accepted into the third TMCx class:
- Allotrope Medical in Houstonoffers precise ureter identification during minimally invasive surgeries.
- Bloom Labs in New York developed a rescue inhaler the size of a credit card for people with asthma.
- Blumio in San Francisco created a sensor that measures blood pressure continuously, eliminating the need to use an inflatable cuff.
- Briteseed in Chicago produces smart surgical tools that can alert a surgeon before an unsafe cut is made.
- Flexiosin Houston offers streamlined surgical solutions for tendon repair that improve strength, smoothness and patient satisfaction.
- IntuiTap Medical in Houstoncreated a handheld device that eliminates the guesswork from spinal taps.
- NovaScan in Milwaukee, Wis., offers an oncology diagnostic platform that produces a highly accurate, instantaneous detection of cancer without capital equipment.
- Otricath in Houston developed a catheter system to improve the delivery of liver cancer treatment.
- Voyager Biomedical in College Station, Texas, offers a better solution for vascular access in dialysis patients.
- WeaRobot in Monterrey, Mexico developed an active exoskeleton for the elderly and physically impaired.
- WestFace Medical in Seattle provides clinicians with forward facing, real-time imaging during vascular procedures.