Device from LineGard Med offers safety and cost reduction

Spencer Jones is founder and CEO of LineGard Med, a 2015 Cohort Finalist in the ZeroTo510 Memphis Medical Device Accelerator Program. He worked as a Registered Nurse at St. Vincent Infirmary in Little Rock, and prior to that at Katherine’s Place, and HealthSouth in Fayetteville. His previous entrepreneurial experience was as founder and CEO of Jones Innovative Medical Solutions Inc., another medical device and solutions company that creates unique products that impact efficiency in healthcare at the front lines.

Spencer considered medical school during college as a possible path forward to help patients, but his impatience did that idea in. But that may yet turn out to be Spencer’s greatest advantage. Passing up on being a physician was based on his refusal to wait until he was nearly 30 years old to start making a massive impact in patient care and lives. The result is LineGard Med, a company designed to do just that. His company helps patients who may be in a confused state of mind, that are prone to rip out their IV lines.

LineGard Med promotes and restores patients' health by providing tools to skillfully execute the nursing process, and in doing so, providing physical and psychological support to patients, friends, and families. Whether its oncology, pediatric, or long-term acute care patients, Lineguard Medical supports anyone being treated with IV therapy, and the key to their technology is the Safe Break™ system, which comes as one connected adapter. A nurse attaches the device to the IV tubing first, and 'primes' fluid to the internal cavity of the device, ensuring no air is left inside the device.

This little device is poised to make a big impact. With over 200 million IV access devices inserted annually, studies show that six to 12 percent of these lines are accidentally dislodged each year, costing the U.S. healthcare system $1 billion annually.  Dislodging or accidental removal often leads to a reportable hospital event and requires extensive cleaning, materials usage, and fluid biohazard concerns that cause labor and other costs to skyrocket.

Spencer chose ZeroTo510 and Memphis Bioworks because of the focus. “The medical device landscape is a tricky business, and having that industry specific focus is one of the reasons this program is so valuable. The structure is another reason; these guys have it down to a science. They've leveraged Memphis' industry clusters and developed program curriculum that draws in community leaders to help us learn and grow as entrepreneurs. The support community that they've cultivated around the program is powerful, and everyone involved has a 'lift as you climb' mentality about helping young companies."

This story is part of a series reviewing the ZeroTo510 and Start Co. Demo Day on August 13. The ZeroTo510 Medical Device Accelerator is a first-in-kind entrepreneurial accelerator program that focuses on leveraging key regional strengths of the Memphis area: biomedical research and medical device manufacturing. The goal of ZeroTo510 is to help medical device startups navigate the startup process, refine their business models and complete the Food and Drug Administration’s 510(k) premarket notification filing.