FISHERS, Ind.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Recovery Force, LLC, a med tech innovation company, has received a $1.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to complete development and clinically validate its flagship product, the Mobile Active Compressions™ (MAC) calf device. The innovative device is designed to prevent occurrences of Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) while facilitating faster patient mobility and recovery as well as collection of meaningful data for nurses and physicians.
The prestigious grant was awarded through NIH’s highly competitive Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) process and builds off efforts from a previous $244,000 grant from NIH, which demonstrated the need for a new way to address DVT prevention and patient adherence. DVT is a life-threatening condition that affects between 350,000 to 600,000 people annually and is associated with $6B in yearly healthcare costs.
“The NIH award will help Recovery Force gather clinical evidence to accelerate commercialization of our groundbreaking MAC device,” said Matt Wyatt, founder and CEO of Recovery Force. “Most important, the grant will fortify our efforts to improve patient outcomes and reduce healthcare costs by bringing a completely portable product to market that’s more comfortable than and half the size of existing DVT prevention sleeves.”
Recovery Force uses a completely different approach from the decades-old methods for preventing DVT. Instead of relying on cumbersome tubes and wires that connect patients to electrical power and loud pumps, Recovery Force has engineered a completely mobile technology that combines breathable, lightweight fabrics in a comfortable form factor that doesn’t require bladders, pumps, cords or electrical stimulation. The quiet, wireless and rechargeable solution delivers a dramatically improved experience and quality of life after surgery, sports performance or other activities.
”Success under the previous NIH grant validated the strong need for vast improvements in DVT prevention from both the patient and healthcare system points of view,” said Jason Bobay, COO of Recovery Force. “There’s strong demand for a new technology to better address DVT and leverage patient mobility data in deterring other hospital-acquired conditions and events.”
The $1.8 million NIH award will enable Recovery Force to complete the design of its device and begin testing on patients in two major hospital systems—Eskenazi Health, a partner with Indiana University School of Medicine and Boston-based Tufts Medical Center. “I am excited to lead the clinical testing of this innovative device,” said Dr. Karen K. Giuliano, a nurse researcher and associate professor at Northeastern University, who is leading clinical testing at both hospitals. “While our initial testing will focus on enhancing mobility and addressing DVT risk for patients after total joint replacement, the MAC device has the potential to reduce DVT risk as well as significantly improve mobility and care for almost any patient.”
Recovery Force’s initial involvement with healthcare experts and clinicians as well as the gathering of patient feedback has contributed greatly to early momentum for this disruptive device. In 2018, the company announced a collaboration with Mayo Clinic to assist Recovery Force in developing, assessing and validating next-generation active compression technology. Recovery Force also announced it was working with manufacturing solutions provider Jabil to benefit from the company’s proven healthcare expertise in bringing its next-generation wearable medical technology to market.
With this latest NIH grant, Recovery Force is well positioned to accelerate product development, testing and research. The company expects the first MAC calf device to be commercially available to hospitals and at-home patients by early 2020.
About Recovery Force: Founded in 2013, Recovery Force is a med tech innovation company focused on transforming the healthcare landscape by providing disruptive mobile solutions that enhance circulation. The company’s core competencies reside in identifying problems that exist in healthcare and finding simple solutions that have the capabilities to provide extraordinary outcomes. Recovery Force offers extensive medical device experience in sales, regulatory, intellectual property, new product marketing, product development, clinical validation, research, commercialization and distribution.
About the NIH SBIR Program: The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs, also known as America’s Seed Fund, are one of the largest sources of early-stage capital for technology commercialization in the United States. These programs allow U.S.-owned and operated small businesses to engage in federal research and development that has a strong potential for commercialization. In Fiscal Year 2019, NIH’s SBIR and STTR programs will invest more than $1 billion in health and life science companies that are creating innovative technologies that align with NIH’s mission to improve health and save lives. A key objective is to translate promising technologies to the private sector and enable lifesaving innovations to reach consumer markets.