Compression Kinetics is hoping to take its innovative mobile compression device through the final stages towards commercialization thanks to a new round of funding from the Memphis Bioworks Foundation’s
ZeroTo510 Memphis Medical Device Accelerator.
Co-founder John Pamplin touts the company’s mobile, single-unit compression device as a replacement for the currently used sequential compression device technology. The new device uses shape memory alloy fabric to deliver compression to patients’ legs, keeping blood circulating and helping to prevent deep vein thrombosis, or blood clotting.
“The currently used devices inflate with air so they require both a sleeve and a pump, there’s a lot of tubing, and many patients find them very uncomfortable and loud,” says Pamplin. “Our device uses a completely different method involving smart materials that retract to apply the same amount of pressure in a much smaller and less expensive device, and it is much more comfortable for patients because it is breathable.”
He points out that his company’s product is also mobile compared to devices used today that must be removed each time the patient has an ambulation event or go to the bathroom.
“Our product is battery powered so patients can get up and move around when they need to,” explains Pamplin, who hopes to tap into a multi-billion dollar market, as roughly 30 percent of patients in hospitals wear some sort of sequential compression device.
Pamplin (a biomedical engineer) and co-founder Jeff Smith (entrepreneur and business major) met as undergraduates at the University of North Carolina and decided to combine their talents to see if they could take Pamplin’s idea to the next level. They discovered the ZeroTo510 accelerator and were accepted into the program.
“They gave us the expertise to actually take our idea and form a business around it. It’s been a really transformative experience and an amazing opportunity for us,” says Pamplin. “The level of involvement within the community was incredible for us, and the people at hospitals were excited to have early-stage businesses in Memphis.”
The company has now secured two rounds of investments totaling $150,000.
“The money’s being put into creating more prototypes and shoring up our design,” he says.
The next step will be obtaining FDA approval in the next six months and then taking the product to market by the middle to latter part of next year.
By Michael Waddell
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