Rutgers-Camden Business Incubator Client Receives Federal Grant to Develop Medical Tech for Veterans Affairs
CAMDEN â€" The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has awarded a prestigious $721,000 grant to Camden-based mVisum, Inc., a Rutgersâ€"Camden Technology Campus client.
(Media-Newswire.com) - CAMDEN — The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has awarded a prestigious $721,000 grant to Camden-based mVisum, Inc., a Rutgers–Camden Technology Campus client.
mVisum develops a communications tool that allows medical professionals to securely receive, review, and respond to patient data recorded at the point of care. The information is transmitted via secure HIPAA-compliant internet servers to the required physicians’ handheld smartphone.
Through the grant from the Veterans Affairs Innovation Initiative ( VAi2 ), mVisum will develop its technology to better serve military veteran with medical needs. VAi2 launched its 2010 Industry Innovation Competition last June. Innovators were invited to submit proposals that “provide broad, scalable solutions that can substantially advance the access, quality, performance, or cost of services provided by Veterans Affairs.”
“The VAi2 Initiative shows how dedicated the Department of Veterans Affairs is to seeking unique technology solutions to benefit our veterans,” says mVisum CEO Praveen Dala, of Sicklerville. “We are extremely proud to have been chosen to pilot our technology there and look forward to continuing our growth here in Camden.”
mVisum makes it possible for physicians to remotely review various clinical data such as EKGs, laboratory results, and medical images from a smartphone, like a Blackberry or iPhone, and quickly communicate with medical personnel who are working on a patient in the hospital.
“With our technology, the interventional cardiologists in the VA will be able to see a patient’s EKG, echocardiogram, lab result, or other information and immediately begin to assess whether the patient is experiencing a heart attack,” says Mark Irish, vice president of sales and marketing for mVisum. “The physician can literally be anywhere and still have access to the data they need to help speed the treatment of the patient. This is especially critical when treating a patient with symptoms of chest pain.”
Irish, a Moorestown resident, says the company’s current focus in the VA is in cardiology, but that the technology easily translates to other medical specialties.
“This grant money allows us to develop a means to deploy our technology within the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Washington D.C. and to prove its clinical utility so that it might one day be used throughout the Department of Veterans Affairs,” Irish explains.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has 153 medical centers nationwide. mVisum’s clientele already includes a number of private sector hospitals.
mVisum was incorporated in 2007 and became part of the Rutgers–Camden Technology Campus in March 2009. The RCTC is a nonprofit business incubator whose mission is to attract, develop, and retain new businesses for Camden.
Irish says mVisum currently has six employees and estimates growing to 10 within the next 12 to 18 months.
“We struggled for a few years, as most early-stage companies do, but we’re very happy with our growth,” Irish says. “When we first started, there were questions of whether you could actually use the technology in this way, but those questions have completely gone away.”
Located in Camden’s Waterfront Technology Center, the Rutgers–Camden Technology Campus provides subsidized rent, professional mentoring, business services, and management assistance to emerging early-stage companies and their employees along with access to venture capital and other supportive services while working to foster economic growth and business success in Camden and across the region.
“It’s a wonderful achievement for mVisum and an incredible accomplishment for an early-stage company,” says Suzanne Zammit, manager of the Rutgers–Camden Business Incubator. “The grant will contribute greatly to mVisum’s growth, the economic development of Camden, and the mission of the Rutgers–Camden Business Incubator.”
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Media Contact: Edward Moorhouse ( 856 ) 225-6759 E-mail: ejmoor@camden.rutgers.edu
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This story was released on 2010-12-30. Please make sure to visit the official company or organization web site to learn more about the original release date. See our disclaimer for additional information.