San Jose, California-based VitalConnect, a maker of wearable sensors for remote monitoring, has raised $33 million in Series C financing in a round led by MVM Life Science Partners and Baxter International.
The company, which last raised money in June 2016, plans to use the funding to move forward with commercializing its remote monitoring platform and medical-grade wearable sensor system. The FDA-cleared disposable peel-and-stick health sensors can measure a range of biometric data including single lead ECG, heart rate, heart rate variability, respiratory rate, skin temperature and even posture (which can detect falls). Via Bluetooth, the sensors send the data to either a connected app or hub, then onwards to a cloud-based server where it can be accessed by the user’s care providers.
VitalConnect sells its system to healthcare providers and health companies, and has been involved in a few pilot studies. In April 2016, the John Muir Medical Center in Concord, California, launched a cardiac remote patient monitoring study using technology from Vital Connect and from digital health startup BePatient under the combined name of BeVital. At HIMSS 2016, the company announced they had integrated their biosensor patch with PhysIQ’s-personalized physiology analytics system. The integration was piloted in clinical studies with heart failure patients across four VHA hospitals within the US Veterans Administration.
“The integration of wearable biosensors into existing and emerging healthcare environments will change the care paradigm within hospitals as well as enable virtual care opportunities that were never before possible,” VitalConnect Chairman and CEO Dr. Nersi Nazari, said in a statement. “Biosensors, when paired with sophisticated data analytics platforms, have the unique opportunity to enable better care for patients while reducing costs for hospitals – a win for both patients and providers.”
As part of the investment, MVM Life Science Partners’ founder, Dr. Stephen Reeder will join VitalConnect’s board of directors.
“MVM has been looking for some time for a wireless technology that can deliver better care for patients and a high return on investment for providers, across a range of care environments. We have found it in VitalConnect,” Reeder said in a statement.
