Israel-based medical device developer EarlySense has raised $25 million in a Series G round to bolster the customer base for its continuous monitoring tech to support remote patient monitoring, according to a company statement. It will also use the funding to support its expansion into consumer digital health devices that rely on its FDA-cleared monitoring system.
Israel’s largest bank, Bank Hapoalim, led the financing round with participation from Pitango Venture Capital, JK&B Capital and investors that have previously backed the business.
“There is a real need to bring these capabilities to individuals and their family members at home,” CEO Avner Halperin noted in the statement. “In expanding the reach of EarlySense, we can potentially impact millions of lives in both the medical and wellness markets.”
The monitoring system helps healthcare professionals track patients’ heart rate, respiratory rate and movement through a sensor placed under the mattress. Data from the sensor is displayed on a bedside monitor and in nurse monitoring stations. The idea is to detect early signs of an adverse event before it happens.
I emailed Halperin some questions in response to the announcement. Here’s what he had to say.
Are these sensors just used in hospitals or for remote monitoring at home/nursing homes, assisted living facilities, etc?
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
The EarlySense sensors are in commercial use in hospitals and nursing homes in North America, Europe and Asia. The technology also has significant value in the home, where it can help the elderly age respectfully at home with minimal time in institutions.
How specifically will the funding be used?
The funding will be used to accelerate our commercial growth in the hospital/ nursing home market. We plan to enlarge our sales team as well as the team that supports our strategic marketing partners. In addition, the funds will be used to complete development our Consumer Digital Health offering for the home market which we plan to launch in the second half of this year as well as continue to closely support our partners: Samsung, Beurer and Icon Health and Fitness.
What if anything has changed regarding design of the sensor?
In adapting the sensor to the home market, we have physically shrunk it and added BT connectivity to allow it to connect to smart phones that run an app with our patented algorithms. In addition, the new design of the sensor allows accurate sensing of a person in bed even when there are two people in bed. Both bed partners can also be accurately monitored by putting two sensors on each side of a bed.
What insights have you gleaned from your customer base since this product was launched?
In hospitals, clinicians using our systems have run clinical studies on over 10,000 patients showing that by using the EarlySense system they can achieve shorter length of stay, fewer resuscitations, fewer ICU transfers and less falls and pressure ulcer incidents. In 2015 alone clinicians in hospitals using our systems are likely to have saved over 300 lives, over 25,000 hospital days and over 4,000 ICU days while also saving $18 million. In nursing homes, clinicians have shown that they can reduce falls and transfers back into hospitals by leveraging the EarlySense technology.
We have also learned that patients are very happy to be monitored with the EarlySense sensor. We have received several testimonials from patients and their families regarding the improvement in their peace of mind and satisfaction rating of the hospital care when they learned about being continuously monitored without having to wear any sensors on their body.
We have also heard from our customers about recent research work at John Hopkins University that showed medical errors in hospitals are the third largest cause of death in the U.S. – killing over 250,000 patients a year. Medical errors cannot always be prevented, but with continuous, smart monitoring they can be detected much earlier, allow effective intervention and then tens of thousands of lives, if not more, can be saved.
