Healthsense, a Minnesota maker of wireless "passive" medical devices designed to monitor the elderly in their homes, is in the middle of raising $13.7 million, a regulatory filing reveals.
Chief Financial Officer Sue Horvath declined to tell MedCity News how the money would be used, other than noting that more details would come once this latest funding round is complete. Conducted in two phases, the second is expected to be complete by the end of June, according to the story, with a focus on equity and no debt. The filing itself reveals no additional details.
The company uses sensors based on WiFi technology that call for sensors to be placed throughout the home and automatically calls for help if it detects any problems with a patient's safety and health, according to its website. Interestingly, the National Institute of Aging and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency helped develop the technology.
Healthsense, which is based in Mendota Heights, MN, employs about 40 full-time people, according to the MedCity News story, and has previously raised money from sources including Radius Ventures, Ziegler HealthVest Partners and The Ziegler Companies.
Healthsense's funding comes as there is increasing focus on wireless medical devices. The Federal Communications Commission is gearing up to set aside spectrum bandwidth for medical devices which will help support technology such as medical body area network devices, which are small sensors placed on the body that would help doctors monitor things like blood pressure, glucose and temperature. Wireless medical devices are also drawing increasing concerns over the possibility that they face risks of hacking.
- read the SEC filing
- check out MedCity News' take