Cleveland Clinic Innovations has spun off its 71st company — Centerline Biomedical, which plans to develop and commercialize a technology designed to reduce radiation exposure to patients and caregivers during endovascular procedures.
At present, endovascular surgeons rely on X-ray technology when putting instruments and other devices into position during surgeries, particularly those to repair endovascular aneurysms. The Clinic said the procedures last several hours, exposing the patients and surgeons to large amount of harmful radiation. Centerline's proprietary 3D surgical platform, however, uses a GPS-like navigation tool that employs “a proprietary algorithm and sensor-equipped instrumentation,” which limits the radiation exposure, according to a news release.
The technology is based on research from the Clinic's Heart & Vascular Institute and Lerner Research Institute
“The concept came out of pure necessity,” said Dr. Matthew Eagleton, of Cleveland Clinic's Heart & Vascular Institute, said in the release. “The combination of unsafe radiation levels, lengthy procedure times, and limited visualization capacity created an urgent opportunity to solve a real problem for hospitals and patients everywhere.”
Cleveland Clinic Innovations also named medical device industry veteran William Fuller as Centerline's first CEO. Fuller comes from BioEnterprise, where he was a CEO-in-residence. Most recently, he also served as global director of business development for DSM Biomedical.
“Centerline is yet another example of Cleveland Clinic's 90-plus-year tradition of advancing techniques and technologies to improve and extend human life,” said Dr. Thomas J. Graham, the Clinic's chief innovation officer, in the statement. “This unique technology will allow endovascular surgeons to be more precise in therapy delivery; this will diminish procedure times, complications and risks, specifically those associated with radiation treatments.”
Fuller added in the release, “The opportunity to positively impact a growing number of patients and providers alike is significant. Centerline's platform technology solves an immediate need and has the ability to transform many vascular and non-vascular procedures by reducing radiation, improving outcomes, and saving costs.”
