Art Medical Raises $20 Million To Bring Smart Sensor-Based Tube Technology To ICU Patients

Tel Aviv – June 2017 – ART MEDICAL, an Israeli MedTech startup specializing in smart tubes for ICU patients, unveils its platform of sensor-based smart tubes solutions for more comprehensive patient data collection and the reduction in risk of medical complications. In addition, the company is announcing the completion of a $20 million funding round, led by Advanced Medical Technologies LLC.

Tube-related reflux and secretion may cause aspiration pneumonia and ventilator associated pneumonia (VAP). Both are dangerous complications for ICU patients, resulting in prolonged length of stay and higher risk of mortality, and both are unrelated to the original reason for hospitalization. Therefore, gastric reflux and saliva must be identified in real-time and treated immediately. In the ICU, nurses and doctors are required to constantly monitor patients in order to identify those events and minimize their complications. To date, this activity is done manually, often missing time-sensitive actions that could reduce the likelihood of patient complications. With ART MEDICAL’s platform, gastric reflux, saliva and urine output are monitored continuously and automatically to alert the attending nurse and physician of any abnormalities as well as actively prevent related patient complications.

For the first time, ICU caregivers will be able to provide personalized treatment for patients, leveraging untapped data that has not been collected or monitored until now. ART MEDICAL’s smart disposable tube solutions enable physicians to:

• Collect patient data such as feeding needs, saliva secretion and urine output by using sensors embedded in the tubes
• Control the feeding process and provide real-time information, including the exact location of the tube
• Detect and prevent life-threatening problems immediately and automatically, adapting according to the needs of a patient before complications occur

Currently, smart solutions have been embedded in many fields of medicine, yet enteral feeding and other related disposables have remained neglected. ART MEDICAL’s smart tube platform uses sensors to collect data and adjusts itself to the patient’s needs, and comes with a comprehensive console to monitor and control the process. The system collects previously untapped data and automates activities presently performed manually and using them to create insights and perform activities such as optimal feeding, suction to prevent aspiration and also urine output monitoring. The system uses the sensors to identify problems that lead to life-threatening complications before they arise.

After the initial funding of $7M, including funding from the Israel Innovation Authority (Chief Scientist) and Bill Gates’ Grand Challenge, the company recently raised a round of $20M led by Advanced Medical Technologies, a private US fund. The company was founded eight years ago, and has remained in stealth mode since. During this period the team developed the product from the initial Anti-Reflux Tube (ART) into a complete solution to improve patient safety.

“One of the challenges for the ICU staff is patients’ prolonged length of stay and mortality from complications which are unrelated to the original reason of hospitalization,” says founder and CEO, Liron Elia. “Aspiration of foreign materials is a major risk for intubated patients and technology is what is needed to solve this problem. We are confident that ART MEDICAL has the solution.”