AliveCor Gets New CEO and Cardiovascular Device Patent

AliveCor (San Francisco, CA), an mHealth company, announced several significant changes in recent weeks. In addition to a management change at the company, the company landed a patent with USPTO for its smartphone-based heart monitoring system.

In August, AliveCor announced that Euan Thomson, a board member and operating partner at Khosla Ventures, would serve as an interim CEO. This represents two leadership changes in less than a year. Six months ago, Dan Sullivan, an entrepreneur and longtime executive of the medical device industry, took leadership of AliveCor. However, Sullivan only served as CEO for half a year before his departure. Before Sullivan, Judy Wade served as CEO. Wade was the company's first CEO and helped guide AliveCor through FDA clearance for its iPhone-enabled Heart Monitor. Despite this regulatory win, her reign lasted for roughly as long as Sullivan's.

Before joining Khosla Ventures, Thomson worked as a physicist in the National Institute of Health, the government-led healthcare system in the United Kingdom. After that, Thomson spent a decade at the helm of Accuracy as CEO. After this, Thomson joined Khosla Ventures.

When questioned on AliveCor's difficulties in finding a steadfast CEO, Thomson stated, "I would lead off by saying that there was nothing untoward in [Sullivan's departure]. It's just a natural transition for the company, although I understand there [might be] a different perspective on it. I guess I'd want to answer that question by discussing some of the challenges of developing a mobile health company. As an operating partner at Khosla Ventures I am actually on the board of a lot of these companies, so the challenges I see at AliveCor are actually common to the field of mobile health."

The company's cellphone EKG system has received positive feedback from the press in recent months. In one case, the device was able to alert a female nurse to a cardiovascular issue that had gone undiagnosed.

The company's specialized phone case is designed to turn a regular smartphone into an EKG machine. The phone case includes two metal leads on its back. To activate it, the patient touches these leads. In a few seconds, the device can show a patient's heart rate and heartbeat.