The Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Ohio https://www.cincinnatichildrens.org and Ben Gurion University http://bgu.ac.il/en in Israel last March launched a new company called Xact Medical https://www.xactmedical.com. The startup was formed to commercialize the “Fast Intelligent Needle Delivery” or FIND system https://www.xactmedical.com/find-system.
FIND extends and improves a way for clinicians to control precisely, quickly, and conveniently the ability to place a needle tip at a point in the body to significantly improve the odds for successful vascular access on the first try. FIND improves clinician workflows, interventional outcomes, and reduces complications, and long-term costs.
The technology was invented and developed through a collaboration between Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and Ben Gurion University through BGN Technologies. Daniel von Allmen MD Surgeon-in-Chief at the hospital and Hugo German PhD, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the university leveraged their combined clinical, research, and engineering expertise to create a solution that is now the backbone of Xact Medical.
Dr Allmen said, “I am very excited for the launch of Xact Medical and the promise that this technology holds for pediatric patients. The fact is that up to a third of central placement attempts in kids fail on the first try and this is unacceptable to us.”
Xact Medical will initially focus on central line placements in pediatric and adult populations but there are plans to expand into additional markets such as biopsy. Immediate next steps are to do further testing of the prototype and market research. The startup is working towards gaining FDA approval as FIND has not yet been cleared for use in the U.S.