Bob Schmidt thinks he has an answer for the mega trends of rising healthcare costs, fewer doctors to treat more patients, and provider pay-cuts by the federal government: eHealth. And for Schmidt’s Cleveland Medical Devices (CleveMed), eHealth means dreaming up diagnostic devices for sleep and movement disorders that can cut up to 90 percent of the cost of traditional tests — and even help primary care physicians find new revenue sources.

Cleveland Medical Devices Inc. has been awarded $60,000 from the Cuyahoga County New Product Development and Entrepreneurship Loan Fund to step up commercialization of its SleepView device for sleep apnea screening at home.CleveMed has a lineup of wireless diagnostic sleep systems, including SleepView, which is the smallest and lightest home sleep monitor with an American [...]

Medical device startup NeuroWave Systems Inc. has received the CE marking for its NeuroSense anesthesia monitor, enabling the company to sell its first product in Europe.The Cleveland Heights, Ohio company has been developing its brain-monitoring device since 2003 when it licensed the technology from co-inventor and now NeuroWave president, Tatjana Zikov.“This is a big day [...]

Delphinus Medical Technologies Inc. has received $8 million in funding commitments to further develop an ultrasonic breast cancer detection device that could become an alternative to mammograms.The funding means that Delphinus can finally begin the process of commercializing its SoftVue device, which has undergone about 10 years of research and development.Unlike mammography, which is traditionally [...]

Cleveland Medical Devices spin-off company NeuroWave Systems Inc. is poised to introduce its first commercial product — the NeuroSense Monitor — without taking a single investor dollar.NeuroSense is a monitor that measures, analyzes and tracks the brain function of sedated or anesthetized patients. So far, NeuroWave and its former parent CleveMed have used [...]

Ohio’s medical device makers are still trying to figure out what the new 2.3 percent sales tax on their products–compliments of health care reform–will mean for them.The tax on sales by “manufacturers, producers or importers” (pdf) of medical devices comes due in 2013 instead of 2011, as was originally proposed, so companies have almost three [...]

The clearance designations are “a big deal” to the company because they could help it double sales in the next two years, said Chief Executive Bob Schmidt.

Supporters say changing Small Business Innovation Research rules to give venture capitalists (and their companies) access to more government funds will accelerate a national economic resurgence. Plus, they point out that many venture companies are small operations far from the perception of a nine-figure equity fund. But other small businesses, include life-science companies, see the changes as a potential death knell to small business funding and the spirit of innovation.

Manufacturers looking to branch out into the biomedical industry will be able to get some tips from people whose businesses already participate in that market. Ohio is second in the Midwest for companies registered with the Food and Drug Administration for medical manufacturing.