A Cincinnati medtech startup founded by four University of Cincinnati physicians has formalized a partnership with a premier health care partner to help advance one of its emerging device offerings.
Norwood-based Sense Neuro Diagnostics, which is developing non-invasive brain scanners to improve outcomes for stroke and brain injury patients, has entered into a “know-how” license agreement with Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic. The collaboration will focus on the assessment and prolonged field care of traumatic brain injuries, or TBI, in a combat environment using Sense's technology.
The news comes nearly nine months after Sense was selected for a bootcamp-type accelerator program backed in part by Mayo Clinic and Arizona State University Alliance for Health Care in March. The program aimed to help early-stage medical device and health care tech companies accelerate their go-to-market and investment possibilities.
Under the “know-how” license agreement, the parties will focus on product design assistance and design assessment as Sense advances the development of its “NeuroHawk Military” product, a non-invasive brain scanner that will enable faster detection and triage and continuous monitoring of TBI sustained on the battlefield. TBI is a signature wound of recent wars.
Mayo Clinic will provide end-user feedback from combat medics, physicians and command personnel. The agreement also includes prototype studies that will evaluate how people interact with the brain injury scanners and how user interface design affects their interactions with the technology.
NeuroHawk Military uses a low-power tailored radio frequency, or RF, pulse to detect TBI in seconds, and through continuous monitoring, indications of expanding brain hemorrhage.
The scanners are small, flexible and portable, designed to fit on a patient’s head like a cap.
“Right now, military service personnel have no accurate, objective way to rapidly assess a brain hemorrhage in an active field environment,” Geoff Klass, CEO of Sense Diagnostics, said in a release. “This know-how agreement aims to further advance this potentially life-saving technology.”
Sense Diagnostics last year 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 this technology.
Exact terms of the Mayo agreement were not disclosed.
Mayo Clinic, per the release, has a financial interest in Sense's NeuroHawk Military technology. The hospital said it "will use any revenue it receives to support its not-for-profit mission in patient care, education and research." Mayo Clinic has repeatedly been named the No. 1 hospital in the country by U.S. News & World Report.
Sense Neuro Diagnostics, founded in 2014, is developing multiple devices, designed for use in a field settling, like an ambulance, or a hospital’s neuro-ICU. The scanners provide continuous brain injury monitoring and allow for the rapid triage of TBI, while also differentiating between all three different stroke subtypes.
To date, Sense Neuro Diagnostics has landed nearly $10 million in funding. Its investors include Cincinnati-based Queen City Angels, Accelerant Fund in Dayton, Cleveland Clinic, Global Cardiovascular Innovation Fund, a private group of Cincinnati-based neuro physicians, among others.
