California medical device startup Eclipse Breast Health Technologies is hoping the flurry of interest in crowd-funding will help it raise a hoped-for $650,000 through internet funding site IndieGoGo.
Eclipse has a ways to go, with just $868 raised so far in 2 days of solicitation, with 44 days before the end of the term.
The La Mesa company is developing a hand-help home breast exam device that images tissue in search of breast abnormalities. The company calls Eclipse’s device "the world’s first personal hand-held device that creates digital images for women and their health care providers to monitor and help identify potential problems."
The device captures the images and transfers them to the "Pink Cloud," where the patient can choose to share the scans with doctors or even other patients in the "social network" of Eclipse users. Users can also subscribe to an automated image review service that provides computer-aided analysis of scans.
The company hopes to bring the Eclipse device to market "as soon as possible," and the IndieGoGo funds will go toward development of working prototypes and beta pilot testing that will enroll 1,000 women by the 1st quarter of 2014, according to a press release.
"The goal is to have Eclipse in the hands of more than 1 million women by the end of 2015 and beyond 20 million within 5 years," founder and CEO Ken Wright said in prepared remarks. "We also want to create and distribute thousands of community kits for developing countries by the end of 2015 and hundreds of thousands within 5 years."
