Welcome Our 2018 TMCx Medical Device Class!
The Texas Medical Center (TMC) Innovation Institute this week welcomed 23 startups into its TMCx accelerator program — the largest medical device class since the institute’s inception — to introduce their technologies to the Houston health care market.
This is the seventh installment of TMCx, a program designed to meet the needs of startups at every stage and to lower the barriers of access to hospital stakeholders and key opinion leaders across the world’s largest medical center.
The new cohort, chosen from 190 applications, is also the most international — nearly one-third of the applicants were from outside the United States. Selected startups represent seven countries, including the U.S.
“We’re excited to introduce these startups from around the world to our medical city,” said Erik Halvorsen, Ph.D., director of the TMC Innovation Institute. “Our mission is to help them connect their promising medical devices to our network of leading minds in medicine and business, and ultimately deliver them to the patients that need them.”
They spent their first day meeting the Innovation Institute team, engaging with our network of advisors, giving one-minute pitches and touring the Houston Methodist Institute for Technology, Innovation & Education.
Companies accepted to the new TMCx medical device cohort include:
· Adroit Surgical (Oklahoma City, Okla.) — VieScope is a simple and efficient intubation device to secure the airway.
· AesculaTech (Los Angeles) — Adaptable punctal plug for the treatment of dry eye.
· Airway Medical Innovations (Queensland, Australia) — Laryngoscope that enables an endotracheal intubation to be done by a trained professional using only one hand.
· Amina Health (Kitchener, Ontario, Canada) — Fast, simple nutrient screening from a drop of blood.
· Angiolutions (Göttingen, Germany) — Minimally-invasive device preventing small abdominal aortic aneurysm growth.
· Articulate Labs (Austin, Texas) — KneeStim, an on-the-go rehabilitation wearable brace, integrates neuromuscular electrical stimulation, motion-tracking, and machine learning to stimulate and strengthen muscles.
· AuriGen Medical (Galway, Ireland) — Cardiac implant treating stroke and arrhythmia risk associated with persistent, long-standing atrial fibrillation.
· De Motu Cordis (Brisbane, Queensland, Australia) — Inhalation device for rapid pulmonary drug delivery in critical care.
· FirstKind (High Wycome, Bucks, England) — Geko is a neuromuscular electrical stimulation device currently being used for deep vein thrombosis prophylaxis, edema control and pre- and post-surgery wound healing.
· Hemonitor (Israel) — Autonomous ultrasound for continuous and non-invasive patient monitoring.
· InstaPath (New Orleans) — Microscopic imaging system improving the turnaround time and accuracy for biopsy diagnosis.
· Intelligent Implants (Houston) — Enhancing, directing, and monitoring bone growth in real-time using wireless implantable electronics.
· NERv Technologies (Waterloo, Ontario, Canada) — Implantable biochip to detect leakage of gastrointestinal fluid into the abdominal cavity following surgery.
· NeuroQore (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) — New form of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation for rapid treatment of suicide risk.
· Noleus Technologies (Houston) — Mitigates post-operative bowel swelling to speed up patient recovery following abdominal surgery.
· Odin Technologies (Chicago) — Non-invasive diagnostic tool monitoring tissue perfusion and assessing muscle compartment pressure and bleeding in trauma patients.
· SafKan (Seattle) — OtoSet is an automated ear cleaning device to treat people with excess or impacted earwax.
· Sana Health (San Anselmo, Calif.) — Smart sleep mask uses audio-visual neurmodulation to treat chronic pain, decreasing pain drug free in less than 10 minutes.
· Smart Medical Devices (Las Vegas) — SMARTdrill is an orthopedic drill measuring bone depth and density, preventing errors, and providing real-time performance data.
· SurePulse Medical (Derby, England) — Vital signs monitoring solutions to advance newborn care.
· Vax-Immune (Houston) — LabReady is revolutionizing the way infectious diseases are diagnosed, with both a laboratory testing and an at-home testing capability that is easy to use, convenient, more accurate, and improves the patient experience.
· VenoStent (Houston) — External stent made by shape-memory polymer designed to reduce failures at the vein-graft or vein-artery junction of dialysis patients.
· VerteCore Technologies (Jackson, Miss.) — Wearable device for the treatment of spinal disorders, enabling recovery while mitigating the need for drugs and surgery.
The 23 companies will present their final pitch to an audience of advisors, hospital stakeholders and investors on Nov. 14 at TMCx Demo Day.