Chicago
Last year, HeartSounds captivated the judges with its FetalPATCH system, a wireless digital heart monitor that could detect fetal heartbeats in multiple-gestation pregnancies. But the company has since changed course, chasing a larger, more lucrative market: cardiology devices.
In about six months HeartSounds will complete its first prototype: a non-invasive apparatus that will allow ICU personnel and other medical professionals to easily detect a patient's pulmonary arterial pressure. That metric allows medical professionals to better determine how to treat a patient in shock.
"Right now the only way to measure that is to insert a catheter into someone's heart. That's quite a dangerous procedure," says founder Matthew Norris. The company, which recently partnered with a Chicago product-development firm, hopes to attract VC funding before starting the FDA approval process next year.
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