Shaping the Future of Human Health

Autoimmune diseases are the third most common category of disease in the United States after cancer and heart disease. According to the National Institutes of Health, autoimmune diseases affect up to 27 million people in the US alone. Boomerang Medical is a bioelectronic medicine company developing technology to advance the treatment of autoimmune diseases by harnessing the body’s own “peripheral wiring” in order to manage inflammation and immune response.  Boomerang Medical is backed by Arboretum Ventures, a venture capital firm specializing in companies that improve patient outcomes and reduce healthcare system costs. Boomerang Medical is also a Company-In-Residence at Fogarty Innovation, a leading Silicon Valley educational incubator focused on visionary approaches that address unmet needs in the rapidly evolving medtech landscape.

While many of our vital signs are easily obtained, the one test that doctors rely on to make the majority of their diagnoses—the blood test—can take hours, if not days, for results. Chronus Health has developed a portable device that provides lab results in minutes, allowing for real-time diagnosis and thus promising to dramatically improve time-to-care and patient outcomes. The startup has focused its initial efforts on complete blood count (CBC) and comprehensive metabolic panel (CMP), which account for 50 percent of all blood tests performed in the United States.

Current chronic therapies for short bowel syndrome (SBS), a malabsorption disorder caused by the lack of a functional small intestine, include expensive medication and intestinal surgery. These approaches have low success rates and a staggering average 5-year cost of care of $1.6 million per patient. Eclipse Regenesis is developing the first restorative therapy for pediatric and adult SBS patients with the Eclipse XL1 Distraction Enterogenesis System, which harnesses the body’s own tissue regenerative capabilities to produce new, fully functional intestine. The startup has raised a seed round of funding, been awarded numerous grants, has a growing IP portfolio and has been published in over 20 peer-reviewed journal articles.

Skin cancer is the most common form of malignancy, with more individuals diagnosed each year than for all other cancers combined. For the last 150 years these malignancies have required an invasive biopsy for diagnosis, but Enspectra is leading a digital transformation in pathology by imaging real-time cellular anatomy in living tissue, without cuts or stains.

As the adoption of telehealth increases, on-demand testing is no longer confined to healthcare settings. Everyplace is aiming to turn any location into a point-of-care lab with a self-service diagnostic kiosk that enables patient-initiated testing in community-based settings. It is designing simple, reliable, contactless patient-initiated testing to facilitate on-demand diagnostics as a complement to telehealth across a range of routine tests.

Up to 60 million individuals in the U.S. suffer from debilitating gastrointestinal disorders. G-Tech Medical is developing a wearable technology aimed at improving outcomes and reducing costs by non-invasively monitoring gastrointestinal tract activity.

More than 110 million people worldwide suffer from non-healing, open wounds. High costs and overly complex technology severely limit, if not eliminate, access to advanced wound care technology. Healyx Labs is developing the lowest-cost and easiest-to-use wound vacuum technology for price-sensitive and underserved markets.

One hundred seventy-eight million adults in the United States are missing at least one tooth, and a surprising 40 million are missing all their teeth. Currently, dental implants are the top choice of treatment, yet less than two percent of those impacted by tooth loss are able to reap the benefits due to limited accessibility, high cost, high risk and long treatment time. iDentical is leveraging the latest 3D technology to offer a safer, faster and more affordable solution through its drill-free, non-invasive dental implants.

Approximately 50 percent of all women in the U.S. will suffer symptoms of a pelvic floor disorder resulting from childbirth by the time they turn 55, and over 20 million suffer from pelvic pain. Materna has developed an obstetrics and gynecology (OB-GYN) platform of medical devices: the first, Prep, is aimed at preventing maternal pelvic injuries during childbirth and shortening delivery time; the second, Milli, is helping treat pelvic pain and dyspareunia.

More than 36 million patients in the U.S. suffer from chronic rhinosinusitis. In fact, the condition accounts for 1 to 2% of all physician visits and is associated with $7 to 12 billion in direct U.S. healthcare costs per year. Nasal steroid sprays are typically prescribed as standard of care, but are only partially effective as they cannot reach beyond the anterior portion of the nasal cavity. Maximal medical therapy (sprays and pills) fail in 50% of patients, leaving them with the options of taking repetitive systemic drugs with serious side effects, having expensive, invasive procedures or continuing to suffer without sufficient treatment. Nasus Medical is developing solutions for improved intra-nasal drug delivery through an innovative technology that is designed for patients to treat themselves at home, early in the pathway.

Ultrasound is a key tool for diagnosing potentially life-threatening problems, but patients too often die before they reach a facility. UltraSight facilitates point-of-care ultrasound in the cardiac imaging space by offering real-time on-screen guidance and quality assessment through a layer of intelligence that simplifies and standardizes ultrasound cardiac scanning.