As part of 1-year-old Maryland Innovation Initiative by Maryland’s Technology Development Corporation to help advance university research and support early-stage companies, 67 commercialization projects and startup companies received $6.4 million. Early-stage healthcare and life-sciences businesses and projects got some of that funding, too, such as remote monitoring for respiratory distress, minimally invasive heart surgery devices and mobile health tools.
The amount and number of investments in fiscal year 2014 was more than double the previous year.
Here’s a summary of the seven grant recipients. Five of them received $100,000, according to Baltimore Business Journal:
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EMOCHA Mobile Health, a telehealth company received $100,000. Its mobile platform is used for remote patient management. Its app has a component that allows users to record themselves taking medication and transmit that data to a physician. It has worked with the South African government to combat drug-resistant tuberculosis. It’s also working with the National Institutes of Health on pilots that focus on adherence for areas such as TB, smoking cessation, weight management and diabetes. A graduate of DreamIt Health Baltimore, it opened offices in early-stage incubator, Emerging Technology Centers in Baltimore.
Harpoon Medical, an early-stage medical device company, developed a device to repair the mitral valve. The device was created in the cardiac surgery division at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, according to its website. The minimally invasive surgical device is designed to help surgeons access and repair the mitral valve in a beating heart through a small incision between the ribs without the need for cardiac arrest or cardiopulmonary bypass.
MedSense is developing ways to improve the performance and lower the cost of sensors that can be implanted in patients, according to the Baltimore Business Journal.
respeQ is developing products to support remote monitoring for people with sleep disorders associated with respiratory distress. Its monitoring system will wirelessly transmit respiratory function data to a mobile diagnostic platform, according to the Maryland Innovation’s website. It’s developing the technology in a collaboration with Johns Hopkins University.
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Asclepix Therapeutics is developing biomimetic peptide therapies to treat eye diseases, including macular edema, with technology licensed from Johns Hopkins University.
A couple other companies received funding, although I couldn’t confirm how much at publishing time, including:
CardioSolv Ablation Technologies wants to improve outcomes for ablation procedures to treat ventricular tachycardia using its simulation tool licensed from Johns Hopkins University.
Analytical Informatics was founded by members of the imaging informatics team from the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Although its website is heavy on medical jargon, it develops practice management tools to improve clinical workflow. It also has a collaboration channel for startups and universities that are part of the Clinical Informatics Consortium.
