Kirkland, Wash.-based startup Cardiac Insight has raised an additional $4.5 million to bolster production and distribution of its lightweight disposable electrocardiogram (ECG) test that monitors patients’ heartbeats. The company calls its product, which received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration earlier this year, a game-changer for cardiologists because it allows doctors to give patients instant diagnosis after they wear the device for a week and doesn’t require any supervision from medical professionals. “The patient comes in, they have some sort of malady that they are unsure of … and they don’t know what to do, and nothing can be reproduced in the doctor’s office,” said Cardiac Insight CEO Brad Harlow. “They wear this device for seven days, then come back to their physician and they can immediately have the physician tell them what sort of cardiac anomaly, if anything, they have and reassure the patient or move them on for further treatment.” This new funding is in addition to a previous round in April, also for $4.5 million. This time around Cardiac Insights will use the money to boost production and distribution of the Cardeo Solo device, as well as sales and marketing. Harlow declined to discuss specific customers, but he said the company is selling the device to cardiologists and hospitals. In the future, the device could show up in general and family practices as well. In addition to the funding round, Cardiac Insight has made some key personnel moves in recent months. Ann Demaree, who recently joined the company as vice president of marketing and business development, boasts more than 25 years of medical device and healthcare IT industry consulting and commercialization experience. Biotech veteran Clifford J. Stocks, who was instrumental in the latest funding round, has joined Cardiac Insight’s board. The company also recently created a Scientific Advisory Board chaired by top cardiologist and former Heart Rhythm Society president Dr. Robert Hauser. Its mission will be to advance cardiac arrhythmia research and patient care. Cardiac Insight has been developing Cardeo Solo for several years. The company hasn’t announced pricing for the device — and the final price patients pay will be set by their health provider and insurance plan — but Harlow says he anticipates the device will be less expensive to produce and purchase than other options. The Cardea Solo can be used to monitor the cardiac health of patients who have “transient symptoms,” like periodic lightheadedness or chest pains, Harlow said, and helps doctors quickly figure out which patients are dealing with false alarms and which need more advanced care. “This is able to accurately and on a much lower cost basis, find those patients, identify those patients and get them into treatment without having to admit them first to a hospital or to await further tests. They wear this, they go about their daily lives, they can shower with it, they can work out with it, they sleep with it, they come back and know immediately how they are doing,” Harlow said. Cardiac Insight was spun out of the University of Washington in 2008 by Harlow and UW cardiologist David Linker. In 2015 the company acquired Cardea Associates and their device, CardeaScreen, which tests for heart problems in young athletes. It was brought to market last year and later rebranded as the Cardea 20/20 ECG.
A wearable electrocardiogram (ECG) device is to be distributed more widely after the company that developed it, Cardiac Insight, raised an additional $4.5m in funding. Patients displaying “transient symptoms” of heart conditions wear the Cardeo Solo monitoring device for 2008, collecting data that doctors can use to instantly diagnosis cardiac anomalies if they exist. Cardiac Insight, which spun out of the University of Washington in a week, also raised $4.5m in April, the same month the Cardeo Solo received FDA approval. Pricing is yet to be announced for the small, disposable device, currently being sold to hospitals and cardiologists.