This article is part of our Inno Awards feature. Cytovale was honored under the health care category. Check out the other Inno Awards honorees here.
Sepsis is the leading cause of death in U.S. hospitals, costing the system billions, and requiring doctors to make on the spot decisions in order to diagnose through symptoms alone.
Enter Cytovale, which has recently launched a diagnostic machine that can diagnose sepsis in as little as 10 minutes, saving valuable time that can lead to early treatment and dramatically reduce mortality rates.
The medical device was born out of groundbreaking research in UCLA from its chief technology officer, Henry Tse, which analyzes the micro fluidic properties of cells to detect sepsis. And Tse says the machine can one day be upgraded to detect a broader array of medical ailments.
“For the sepsis application, we are analyzing white blood cells and each of these cells are subjected to hydrodynamic forces,” Tse said. “It is similar to if you’re throwing a water balloon against a wall and using high speed imaging to measure the shape change as it impacts the wall in much the same way our device does with hydrodynamic forces.”
Cytovale’s IntelliSep machine has already received FDA approval and is being tested at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to impressive results. A peer reviewed study analyzing the viability of the machine at the medical center found it to reduce patient hospital stays and save its emergency rooms $1,429 per patient. It was also able to reduce the number of needle sticks per patient and prescriptions of antibiotics.
Ajay Shah, Cytovale’s CEO, says the company is currently testing a number of financial models for its product, but is currently focused on partnering with hospitals to roll out its devices and further test its efficacy.
The startup’s goal is to have hospitals across the country routinely testing patients that enter the emergency room with symptoms that could lead to sepsis through the machine.
“We’re focused on patients who present with some sign or symptom of possible infection like a fever, an elevated heart rate, heavy breathing or with altered mental status,” Shah said. “All in all, that works out to being about one in every five emergency department visits or about 30 million Americans each year.”
About Cytovale
Location: San Francisco
Industries: Medical devices
Founder: CEO Ajay Shah and Henry Tse
Founded: 2013
Funding: $123 million
Major investors: Norwest Venture Partners, Sands Capital and Global Health Investment Corporation
Why they were chosen: Cytovale is taking a millenia old problem and finally giving it a modern solution. Its product has the solution to save countless lives and bring down unnecessary hospital spending related to sepsis care.
