Local Startup to Pitch in Nashville At Google for Entrepreneurs Event
by May 23, 2016 12:00 am 238 views
LineGard Med, a medical device startup that recently relocated its headquarters to downtown Fayetteville, is one of eight companies invited to participate in the “Health Tech” exchange, sponsored by Google for Entrepreneurs.
The week-long event in Nashville, Tennessee, wraps up May 28.
LineGardMed founder and CEO Spencer Jones said GFE is an immersion program that bridges the gap between startups, experts and new markets.
GFE is hosting three separate exchanges in 2016 focusing on three separate topics: “Retail” and “Smart City,” both held in Paris, France, and “Health Tech” in Nashville.
“We are proud to be invited to participate in this exceptional, global entrepreneurship program,” Jones said in a company news release. “Nashville has an enormous health care segment, and the GFE will allow us to connect and create valuable relationships with various industry veterans, and some of the 400 health care companies that call Nashville home.”
LineGardMed’s patented product is called the SafeBreak I.V. medical device, which prevents dislodgement and pullouts of IVs. Clinical studies show that approximately 7 percent of IV lines are dislodged in various hospital and long-term care settings.
Over 200 million IVs are installed in the U.S. each year, making dislodgement a significant health care issue, which LineGardMed estimates costs the U.S. health care system almost $1 billion dollars every year.
The company recently closed its first seed funding round at $800,000, and clinical evaluation of the product will take place this fall at a Memphis hospital.