For orthopedic doctors, everything begins and ends with an X-ray. For patients — especially those in rural areas — the process can be expensive, time consuming and wasteful.
Patients could travel hundreds of miles after an injury to get their X-ray, costing thousands of dollars for the ambulance. They could then wait for hours in the emergency room, adding to their bill, only to be seen by a doctor who won’t have access to their X-ray images.
Dr. Gregory Kolovich saw this problem first-hand during his seven years practicing as an orthopedic surgeon. It sparked his idea for a startup: streamline the entire process with an X-ray device that was both portable and affordable.
In 2016, Kolovich founded his medical equipment company OXOS Medical along with his college friend Evan Ruff to do just that.
Now, the company has raised approximately $20 million in seed funding. Approximately 90% of the investments into the company have been made by over 80 individual medical professionals based in Atlanta and Savannah, Ruff said.
“Most parents have to sit in the ER with their screaming kid for hours,” Kolovich said. “If my kid gets hurt, I know exactly who to call and can avoid that whole process … I’m trying to provide that to everyone.”
OXOS Medical provides radiographic diagnostic imaging wherever a patient is by supplying a hand-held and cloud-connected X-ray machine titled Micro C.
The company has sold approximately 50 of its devices since commercialization. Customers include professional athletic teams, government agencies, hospitals and medical professionals in private practice.
The devices’ mobility, low-cost and low-radiation allows them to be used outside hospital's radiology departments such as primary care offices, locker rooms, ambulances, schools and more.
An X-ray suite can cost millions of dollars for a medical professional due to radiation standards. Because an OXOS Medical device is below radiation dose standards, it costs under $100,000.
Images taken on the devices are connected to the company’s cloud-platform, giving access to a patient’s X-ray images for all medical professionals who log on to the platform.
By September of the year, the company expects to launch the second version of their device, which will be wireless and can scan any part of the body. It will also add features that can guide the user so anyone who isn’t a medical professional can operate the device.
The market potential for OXOS Medical is $40 billion, Kolovich said. Usage of diagnostic imaging procedures in the U.S. costs over $100 billion annually while a portion of the care is provided inappropriately, according to a study by the National Institute for Health Care Management.
Issues facing accessibility to X-rays are especially burdensome for those in third-world countries. As the company expands, OXOS Medical looks to solve this issue by growing in those markets. This summer, the company’s staff will travel to Eswatini and India for beta testing of its online platform.
The company is currently located at Midtown's 1230 Peachtree Rd and has approximately 50 employees.
As it expands, the company will look to relocate to a new office space. It will prefer a space in Midtown to maintain relationships with Georgia Tech and Emory University.
