Medicare will now reimburse nearly $1,000 per procedure for heart surgery planning software from an Ohio State University spinoff – clearing a hurdle for increasing sales to hospitals.
Dasi Simulations LLC's software – "3D predictive model generation for preplanning of a cardiac procedure" – was added to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service list of reimbursement codes as of Jan. 1.
"We expect this to definitely drive revenue and drive new customer usage," co-founder and CEO Teri Sirset said in an interview. "It really does eliminate that barrier to entry for a lot of the facilities that think about this as an expense."
The startup's AI-guided 3D modeling software simulates how a patient’s unique physiology will work with replacement valves of different manufacturers and sizes as well as what complications could arise.
The software received FDA clearance on May 30 as a medical device. Some 70 heart centers have reviewed or started a trial of the software, which replaces modeling done with a 2D image and a ruler.
Since then it has signed seven hospitals paying to use it, with 10 letters of intent and talks with some three dozen heart centers, COO Sean McKibben said. Until now, those hospitals have paid full price, which is not disclosed.
Commercial insurance reimbursement typically follows a nod from CMS, and can be higher then the Medicare rate, which does not always cover the full cost of a medication or procedure.
"The No. 1 pushback we get is the well-documented margin pressures hospitals are facing," McKibben said.
Dasi Simulations spun out of Ohio State University in December 2019, and in early 2022 launched a pilot with two customers, one of them being OSU Wexner Medical Center. The software has been used on more than 1,000 cases.
Cardiology conferences have boosted awareness, executives said.
"Our strongest source of publicity is physicians talking to physicians," said Rich Gray, vice president of sales. "It’s very powerful – a peer-to-peer recommendation. It’s a lot stronger than a sales rep trying to go in and explain the technology."
Dasi Simulations expects to add some 15 employees this year in engineering and sales, Sirset said.
So far the startup has found it easy to recruit out of state, with hires from California, Georgia, Tennessee and Texas moving to Central Ohio. The office has moved near the Short North in Columbus from a Dublin office park.
"Culture is really important for us," Sirset said. "There’s a lot of team bonding and building."
Co-founder and CTO Lakshmi Prasad Dasi developed the software while an OSU associate professor of biomedical engineering and surgery, working side by side with medical center surgeons.
He left in late 2021 for a joint appointment at a Georgia Tech-Emory University biomedical engineering partnership in Atlanta, splitting his time between academia and the startup.
The company was a Columbus Inno Startup to Watch for 2023. It also has a second product going through the FDA process, complementary AI software analyzing more structures in the heart.
"2024 is an exciting time for this company as we ramp up toward our goal of becoming the standard of care," Dasi said.
A filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in mid-December indicated the startup had raised the first $100,000 toward a $5 million goal. Executives could not comment, which is typical when a round remains open.
