NIH’s Small Business Innovation (SBIR) program https://seed.nih.gov through the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) https://www.ninds.nih.gov has awarded a $4 million multi-year grant to Rhaeos, Inc. https://www.rhaeos.com.
Rhaeos, Inc. is a private clinical stage medical device company focused on patients with hydrocephalus. Hydrocephalus is a term for excess Cerebrospinal Fluid (CSF) that affects more than one million adults and children in the U.S. FlowSense is a noninvasive wireless sensor that adheres to a patient’s skin above the implanted shunt tubing. The FlowSense sensor is designed to rapidly monitor ventricular shunt function in patients with hydrocephalus.
Critical data on shunt functionality is measured in a matter of minutes and wirelessly transmitted to a mobile app to improve clinical decision-making. About half of all implanted shunts which is the standard approach to managing hydrocephalus, fail within the first two years of placement and require repeated surgical intervention. Failure is typically diagnosed by computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging which can be inconclusive and expensive.
“One of the most frustrating and worrisome aspects of managing hydrocephalus for both patients and physicians is not knowing with certainty if an implanted shunt is working. The new device has the potential to provide a direct way to confirm if a shunt is functioning properly” reports, Co-Investigator Matthew B. Potts, MD, a Cerebrovascular Neurosurgeon at Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine.
This current grant funding brings the SBIR funds awarded to Rhaeos in 2021 to over $5 million. They also received $1.19 million from the National Science Foundation https://www.nsf.gov for the development of a remote monitoring version of FlowSense that will allow the company to offer a full suite of shunt monitoring solutions that can follow hydrocephalus patients from hospital to home.