Friday, August 13, 2010
Wireless Medcare's patient tracker should be on sale by 2011
Roanoke company Wireless Medcare got FDA approval for its device in July after testing it at Raleigh Court Healthcare Center.
The latest from The Ticker blog
Having raised $1.4 million and received federal approval, a startup medical device company from Roanoke is expecting to have its product to market by December.
Wireless Medcare gained approval in July from the Food and Drug Administration to begin rolling out its patient monitoring equipment to nursing homes and other health care providers, according to CEO Dan Wrappe.
"We have a device and approval -- now we have to turn it into operational service," Wrappe said.
The company's three full-time employees and five part-time employees will now focus on things such as writing an operations manual and setting up the assembly line for manufacturing the device.
The device is called Vivatrak. It's a sensor system that can detect movements in a bed and is being marketed as a way to monitor patients. The product can track how frequently a patient is turned, which is key to preventing pressure sores, and it alerts staff when a patient hasn't been turned. It can also tell staff when a patient who is prone to falls has gotten out of bed unassisted.
The limited liability company has been working to bring Vivatrak to market for four years and was one of the few companies to be backed by the now mostly defunct Carilion Biomedical Institute. CBI still holds intellectual property, but its daily operations ceased as the new Virginia Tech-Carilion partnership for a research institute has evolved.
Originally, Wrappe said it would take $1.5 million and 18 months to bring the product to market, but the foundering economy hindered that goal. Still, he said, his team managed to bring on investors by reaching out to the local community and taking relatively small financial backings instead of looking for someone with deep pockets.
"We've gotten this done $15,000 at a time over the last three years," he said. "If we had chosen to only go after investment groups, I think it would be a good prediction that we wouldn't be as far along as we are today."
The company is also still looking for investors and needs to raise about $500,000 to support customer service needs, Wrappe said.
As the product development advanced, Wrappe turned again to the Roanoke community to test the device, teaming up with the Medical Facilities of America-owned Raleigh Court Healthcare Center.
There, Wireless Medcare discovered small adjustments that needed to be made and tricks to make its product easier to use. The partnership has also led to ideas of how to add to the technology in the future, such as including monitoring sleep patterns, Wrappe said.
Vivatrak will be sold as a subscription service, meaning nursing homes and hospitals won't buy the equipment.
Initial manufacturing of the device will be done out of the current office space on the second floor of 15 E. Salem Ave. in downtown Roanoke.
Wrappe said he hopes to have 5,000 beds with the service by the end of 2011 and 20,000 beds equipped by 2012.
