A Cincinnati startup has landed a six-figure investment from one of the region’s largest health systems.
Medtech startup Sense Neuro Diagnostics has received $250,000 in funding from St. Elizabeth Healthcare, the company said last week. The equity investment will help Sense Neuro advance its clinical trials as the company moves toward commercialization.
Sense, founded in 2014 by four University of Cincinnati physicians, is developing multiple noninvasive devices to monitor traumatic brain injuries and detect brain hemorrhage or different stroke types.
More than 20 sites across the United States, Canada and India are currently engaged in pivotal trials to evaluate Sense Neuro’s in-hospital device, while five sites are evaluating its military field device.
“Innovation is one of our core values and at the root of so much that St. Elizabeth does,” Sarah Giolando, senior vice president and chief strategy officer at St. Elizabeth Healthcare, said in a release. “We are pleased to partner with Sense Neuro Diagnostics and help advance this novel technology with the goal of ultimately saving more lives in our hospitals and across Northern Kentucky and Greater Cincinnati.”
Norwood-based Sense Neuro said its technology can collect 360 data points in 2.5 seconds. The technology has the potential to help first responders, emergency department personnel, neuro intensive care unit teams and military field hospitals assess and monitor traumatic brain injuries and assess different stroke types.
The company in December signed a “know-how” license agreement with Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic and in 2021 was awarded a $2.43 million contract by the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command's combat casualty care research program to advance its technology.
To date, the company has raised around $10 million in funding from investors including Queen City Angels, Accelerant Ventures in Dayton, Cleveland Clinic, the Global Cardiovascular Innovation Fund and a private group of Cincinnati-based neuro physicians.
“Our technology has the potential to be a total gamechanger for emergency rooms and hospital staff who treat people with traumatic brain injuries and stokes every day,” Geoff Klass, CEO of Sense Neuro Diagnostics, said in the release.
“Sense Neuro Diagnostics is grateful for this partnership with St. Elizabeth, and we can’t wait until their medical professionals can apply this technology to their care first-hand,” he said.
Klass recently told me Sense Neuro is tracking toward a commercial launch in 2024.
St. Elizabeth operates the region's third-largest hospital in Edgewood. The health system employs more than 10,000 in the region. In recent years, St. Elizabeth has doubled down on its innovation efforts, launching its own innovation center in September and backing SoCap Accelerate, a local accelerator aimed at helping health-related companies grow and scale their businesses.
