Israel-based medical device and digital health incubator MEDX Xelerator today announced it has added three new companies to its portfolio:
- Dimoveo Medical, a developer of ultrasound-based infection treatment and prevention.
- Swift Duct, a company working to reduce the incidence of post-endoscopic retrograde cholangial-pancreatography (ERCP) pancreatitis.
- Synchrony Medical, a creator of a respiratory therapy device to aid patients suffering from lung disease.
MEDX Xelerator is a partnership of Boston Scientific, Intellectual Ventures, MEDX Ventures and the Sheba Medical Center working under a license from the Israeli Innovation Authority. These additions bring its portfolio to a total of eight companies.
“Bringing these companies on board at this time represents a significant milestone for us,” said MEDX Xelerator CEO Shai Policker in a news release. “These additions underscore our continued commitment to identifying high-impact, multi-disciplinary, bio-convergent solutions to improve patient outcomes and address unmet industry needs in a cost-effective way.”
Dimoveo Medical
Dimoveo Medical is addressing a longstanding clinical challenge, according to CEO Yair Ramot. Medications often cannot reach artificial implants inside the body, making fighting an infection a major risk for patients undergoing orthopedic procedures such as knee replacements, he said.
“Implant infections affect thousands of patients every year who undergo knee replacement and similar orthopedic procedures every year and often require patients to endure additional invasive and costly surgeries to treat the infection,” Ramot said. “Our goal is to provide a simple, effective and affordable solution to fight the infection within the body, minimizing the number of re-operations and related comorbidities. We are thrilled to become part of the MEDX incubator program.”
In addition to Ramot, the Dimoveo Medical founding team includes Dr. Tahel Altman, an inventor who holds several patents in medical devices, pharma and synthetic biology and has experience founding and leading medical device and pharma startups; Shlomo Rotter, the current CTO of several companies that use his specialized ultrasonic technology, NanoSonic; and Yaniv Lambaz, who joins with experience in growing businesses from founding through profitability.
Swift Duct
Swift Duct was established by specialists working at ALYN Hospital, Hadassah Medical Center, and the Hebrew University. The company is developing a navigation tool for ERCP procedures designed to reduce procedure time and difficulty and morbidity by minimizing the risk of pancreatitis caused by erroneously inserting a catheter into the pancreatic duct instead of the common bile duct.
“Being inducted into the MEDX Xelerator portfolio is an important stage of our development,” said Swift Duct CEO Mark Kreizer. “Our goal is to make ERCP a safer and simpler procedure. There is a real urgent need, and we believe we can provide an intuitive solution that can help tens of thousands of people each year affected by common bile duct blockage.”
Synchrony Medical
Synchrony Medical, conceived and developed in Israel’s Sheba Medical Center in partnership with the National Corona Command Center and the MEDX Incubator, has developed a smart vest that performs remote respiratory physiotherapy, allowing a patient-tailored, adaptive home therapy for improving lung function and clearing a patient’s airway. This solution was designed to reduce the amount of contact time between medical staff and chronic respiratory patients who are especially sensitive to pandemics such as the novel coronavirus and the flu.
“Working with MEDX will allow us to leverage the incubator’s expertise to rapidly bring this very needed product to market,” said Synchrony Medical CEO Anat Shani. “The current coronavirus pandemic has emphasized the importance of bringing this important therapy to the home of the patient and reducing the dependency on manual labor and potential infections to both patients and the medical team.”
