Airwarevs.NERv Technology

March 28, 2016

3 Min Read
Medtech Startup Showdown 2016: Round 1—Airware vs NERv Technology

 

vs.

 

 

Describe your device and how it will benefit healthcare.

Continuous glucose monitoring with noninvasive optical technology for pass through and ultimately reflective methods based on new patent pending NIR optical configuration technology

 

NERv is developing an implantable biochip to monitor a patient's health after surgery. The biochip is capable of detecting post-operative complications in real-time. The biochip is designed to target surgeries in the abdominal region, such as operations in the urinary and digestive systems. The biochip is very small, provides instantaneous feedback, and is made entirely out of biocompatible materials, making it completely harmless to the body. The biochip's biosensors continuously gather data about the body and analyze them. If an unexpected change happens, the sensor analyzes the change and sends feedback to the physician. The data is sent to a receiver wirelessly. The receiver is located in the trans-dermal patch placed on the wound after surgery. The receiver then transmits the data to the physician in order to determine if a complication is about to happen. Concurrently, the receiver alerts the patient if a complication is detected in order to seek medical attention immediately.

How does your product differ from the competition?

Our methodology is the first to minimize scattering noise allowing detection to focus on just the weak glucose absorption in our particular NIR band achieving greater signal to noise specific to glucose over any prior techniques with hardware scaling to wearable dimensions.

 

Our technology is a disruptive one and thus there are no real competitors in our field. The nearest form of technology that provides value similar to ours is the medical imaging technology currently on the market, such as CT scans, MRIs, and radiography. These imaging techniques require the patient to show signs of sickness, before they can be used to identify the type and location of complications. However, they still fail 30% of the time (according to the Canadian Association of Radiologists). Our technology is predictive, real-time, and more efficient than the current alternatives on the market, promising to decrease the cost of inpatient healthcare.

Do you have customers yet?

Development stage with coming refinements to the light sources, optics, ADC electronics, and data analysis algorithms

 

Our product will be tested in animals within the next six months. NERv has created a unique business model, where it will be targeting the veterinary market in order to prove clinical and commercial value for its product, before beginning clinical testing in humans.
 

How much money have you raised?

$445,000

 

NERv has raised more than $100,000 in nondilutive capital. NERv has also raised approximately $125,000 in in-kind services from institutions in Ontario and throughout Canada.

Who are your investors?

Internally funded to date.

 

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What is the next milestone for your device?

Refinement of the optical bench for our "development state" to determine the ultimate system accuracy working with phantom tissue samples to achieve goals of detecting down to 10mg/dL of glucose in interstitial fluid of human skin.

 

The next milestone will be to begin testing the biochip in animals to prove clinical and commercial value.

        

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