Columbus, Ohio-based medical technology maker Minimally Invasive Devices closed a $9 million Series B financing round in support of its laparoscopic visualization systems.
MID plans to use the funds to forge a direct sales force and expand manufacturing for its FloShield laparoscopic camera attachment, which already has FDA approval for the U.S. market.
The FloShield device is the 1st of its kind to help prevent camera obfuscation during laparoscopic surgery, according to the company. Modern video systems have little means of preventing fat, smoke or other contaminants from blocking the view while the camera’s inside a patient, resulting in camera removal and cleaning up to 10 times an hour, MID said.
"Modern high definition video systems give surgeons a crystal clear view of a patient’s organs during laparoscopic surgery, but only when the optics are clean," MID founder & CEO Dr. Wayne Poll said in prepared remarks. "Obscuration of images due to contaminants on the optics is a real problem that surgeons have long taken for granted. It’s rather like purchasing a high-end digital camera and being satisfied with photos taken through a dirty lens."
FloShield attaches to a laparoscopic camera and forms an "air curtain" to invisibly protect the lens. The device also delivers a bio-compatible Flo-X wash for flushing the lens when necessary.
The funding round was led by new investors Canaan Partners and Charter Life Science as well as an unnamed existing investor. Canaan general partner Brent Ahrens joined MID’s board of directors on closing, and the company named Jim Bobbitt its vice president of sales.
