Vitls Joins The Medical Device Program At Texas Medical Centre Innovation Institute

The Texas Medical Center (TMC) Innovation Institute kicked off its four-month accelerator program this week by welcoming 19 startups from across the world to introduce their medical devices to the Houston health care market.

This is the fifth installment of TMCx, a program designed to meet the needs of startups at every stage—from ideation to commercialization—by lowering the barriers of access to hospital stakeholders and key opinion leaders in the world’s largest medical center.

Innovation Institute members sifted through 123 applications from companies headquartered in 15 countries. The companies that ultimately make up the class include seven local companies, nine from outside of Texas, and three from outside of the U.S.

In addition, one of the companies, Alleviant Medical, moves into the cohort from the TMC Biodesign program, a one-year fellowship bringing together eight people from diverse backgrounds who work together in interdisciplinary teams to observe and identify unmet needs and collaboratively create products to solve them.

Meet the new medical device class:

Aesela (Houston, TX) – Wearable photobiomodulation device designed to accelerate and enhance post-surgical recovery.

Alleviant Medical (Houston, TX) – Transcatheter technology to provide left atrial decompression and symptomatic relief for congestive heart failure.

Bitome (Boston, MA) – MRI-based diagnostic tool for non-invasive monitoring of the human hydration state.

Dock Technologies (Madison, WI) – Electronic wristbands that provide a visual reminder of time elapsed, helping care teams quickly navigate complex treatment processes.

Elsius Biomedical (Canada) – Portable Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) unit that includes a proprietary coating to enhance biocompatibility and prevent blood clots.

Forest Devices (Pittsburgh, PA) – Screening device that enables identification of stroke patients and traige to the right level of care.

GuidaBot (Houston, TX) – MRI-compatible robotic system that precisely targets areas of the brain during minimally-invasive neurosurgical procedures.

iSono Health (San Francisco, CA) – Accessible at-home breast health monitoring combining 3D ultrasound and artificial intelligence.

Multisensor Diagnostics (Baltimore, MD) – Device that measures multiple vital signs by mouth in less than a minute.

NanoEar Technologies (Houston, TX) – A minimally-invasive, micro-implantable hearing aid, positioned to disrupt the market by utilizing Direct Eardrum Modulation.

NAVi Medical Technologies (Australia) – Improving neonatal umbilical venous catheter (UVC) placements by providing clinicians with real-time feedback on the location of the catheter tip.

Orphidia (San Francisco, CA) – Portable blood diagnostic platform providing lab-quality test results in 20 minutes.

PolyVascular (Houston, TX) – Polymeric transcatheter valves for children with congenital heart disease.

Raiing Medical (Boston, MA) – Wearable device monitoring vital signs for connected health.

Replete Biotics (Houston, TX) – Standardizes fecal specimen processing while protecting bacterial community integrity and eliminating cross-contamination risks.

Resthetics (Houston, TX) – Device to convert waste anesthesia into a safe renewable resource.

Sonavex (Baltimore, MD) – Implantable device that utilizes ultrasound to detect blood clots after surgery.

Vena Medical (Canada) – Making vascular procedures faster, easier and safer by providing physicians with a thin fiberoptic camera that sees through blood.

Vitls (San Francisco, CA) – Vital signs platform for continuous, remote monitoring.