A Greater Cincinnati medical tech startup developing devices to improve outcomes for stroke and brain injury patients has been awarded a multimillion-dollar military contract.
Sense Neuro Diagnostics, founded in 2014 by four University of Cincinnati physicians, said the $2.43 million, 18-month award from the U.S. Department of Defense will accelerate development of a new rapid, noninvasive brain scanner that can detect and continuously monitor traumatic brain injury in a battlefield or field environment.
TBI, for short, is a signature wound of recent wars. There have been roughly 420,000 documented incidents of service members sustaining at least one TBI in the last two decades. But there is currently no objective tool for diagnosing and monitoring TBI and brain hemorrhage, the company said.
“It’s a big problem,” Geoff Klass, CEO for Sense Neuro Diagnostics, said. “It also gives us another avenue to expand our products.”
The military device will leverage a lot of the company’s existing technology, Klass said. Sense Neuro Diagnostics currently has two devices in development: one, a smaller headset for field assessment, like in an ambulance, and another for continuous monitoring in a hospital’s neuro-ICU.
The headsets include antennae that transmit a low-power radio frequency through a patient's head – healthy brain tissue, for example, has different electrical properties – that can detect expanded brain hemorrhage and differentiate between three different stroke subtypes.
Dr. George “Chip” Shaw, medical co-founder and CTO for Sense Neuro Diagnostics, said the military device will be small, flexible and portable, designed to fit on a patient’s head like a cap. It will be able to detect TBI in seconds and continuously monitor for indications of an expanding brain hemorrhage.
When it comes to TBI, proper diagnosis and quick treatment is critical, he said — but conditions make evacuation difficult, potentially delaying care.
“The military doesn’t have a lot of the same tools we have in the hospital, obviously, so this device addresses that gap,” Shaw said.
Sense was selected by the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command combat casualty care research program. The award was issued through the Medical Technology Enterprise Consortium, a biomedical tech consortium working to advance innovative medical solutions for military personnel.
The MTEC award will fund the completion of product development and clinical testing over the next 18 months. With the contract, the company, which is based at HCDC in Norwood, plans to add around four new team members to its team of 10, including quality control, manufacturing and sales positions.
Klass said the company’s first kickoff meeting with military personnel will take place Wednesday. While the potential size of a Department of Defense purchase is unclear, he said there’s interest building outside the U.S. as well. Sense will be presenting the product to NATO and allied countries in the coming months.
“It’s a great opportunity,” he said. “It has some far reaching benefits.”
