Without stimulation and movement, a patient’s muscles can slowly waste away – a major concern among the immobile patient set.
Palo Alto medtech startup Niveus Medical has developed a device that uses electrodes to shock a muscle back to liveliness, and is raising $3.6 million to push that technology further along, according to regulatory filings. In 2011, it raised $2 million from a syndicate that included Band of Angels, Life Science Angels, Sand Hill Angels and others.
One critical component of shortening hospital visits – particularly in the ICU – is to increase mobility, but muscles can deteriorate rapidly when a patient is bedridden and in recovery. Niveus posits its technology can get patients out of the ICU faster, simply by keeping a patient’s muscles engaged even when sedentary
Its device has received marketing clearance from the FDA, Niveus said. The company asserts a case for its technology:
In the US, there are 6M annual admissions to the ICU. Niveus will initially target the 1.8 million patients who have an ICU stay longer than 5 days. At a conservative price point, these patients create a revenue opportunity exceeding $1.2B in the U.S. alone. Additional opportunities outside of the ICU are envisioned.
The muscle stimulation system has a number of indications: Maintaining or increasing range of motion of the knee joint, preventing or retarding disuse atrophy in the quadriceps, muscle re-education of the quadriceps, relaxation of muscle spasms and increasing local blood circulation.
