Earlier this year, Dr. Esra Roan, CEO of
Somavac Medical Solutions, took a leap of faith. Roan decided to leave behind a career in academia to apply for Memphis Bioworks’ Zero to 510 medical device accelerator and start her own company. “The day I hit ‘submit,’ my heart was pounding. I knew what it meant for me professionally. When we got the call that we were in, it was something out of this world,” Roan said.
Roan has worked with startups in the past as a mentor and advisor. She met CTO Josh Herwig as a professor at Tennessee Tech University, where Herwig was studying mechanical engineering. Together, they incorporated Somavac on April 28, 2016. April 28 holds special meaning for Roan, as it is also her son’s birthday and the anniversary of obtaining United States citizenship.
Somavac is a patient-centered company whose mission is to improve patients’ post-surgery experience. Their first device is a 2 centimeter thick, low-profile device for patients to use in post-surgical fluid draining. “We will help 650,000 patients each year after mastectomies and hernia repairs. Patients hate the current drain solution so much they take it out, leaving one in five patients at risk for a complicated seroma,” Roan said.
Roan and Herwig hope to provide a more humane alternative to the current drain solution, which is bulky, awkward, with four tubing lines that can’t be hidden easily beneath clothing. “Patients have to wear this 24/7 for as long as four weeks. They told us they can’t go on living their life normally. This happens a lot after mastectomies, which is an emotional surgery anyway, and it really does impact their recovery,” Roan said. “We’re building a bridge between patients and surgeons,” Herwig added.
Somavac plans to stay in Memphis, and have started the process of recruiting plastic surgeons as initial customers as well as talking to manufacturers. They are also raising additional follow-on funding. You can learn more about Somavac Medical Solutions at their
website.
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