Smart cushion maker inspired by fellow founders
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe founder of a medical device startup in Brown County says a recent win at a pitch competition in San Diego was particularly special. Wave Therapeutics, which is developing a smart cushion device to help prevent bed sores, won the $10,000 top prize in the national Women’s Fast Pitch Competition held during the Women’s Venture Summit. However, Jessica Bussert says the company is sharing the winnings with the other startups in the competition.
In an interview with Business of Health Reporter Kylie Veleta, Bussert said the move is in line with the theme of the summit.
“The focus of the Women’s Venture Summit is all about women uplifting other women. It’s filled with women VCs and angels who specifically and intentionally invest in female founders,” Bussert said. “The reason why that’s so important is only about 3% of all funding dollars go to women and minority founders in the United States, and this group is actively trying to make a change in that.”
Bussert says she was blown away by the other five founders in the competition, which led to the decision to share the top prize. The winnings are set to be shared out in the next few weeks.
Wave Therapeutics says its cushion is the first affordable and effective cushioning technology to prevent and treat bed sores.
Bed sores, also known as pressure ulcers, can lead to life-threatening complications, and about 60,000 patients die as a direct result of bed sores annually.
The cushion uses a rolling wave of low pressure underneath the patient that the startup says will help prevent pressure injuries, blood clots and deep vein thrombosis. It also uses sequential compression, which is designed to help blood flow back toward the heart and lungs.
Bussert, former nurse, says the first product developed by Wave Therapeutics will be a cushion for wheelchairs.
“There are about 5.5 million occasional and full-time wheelchair users in the United States, and these people are at huge risk for developing these debilitating sores,” she said.
Manufacturing of the cushion will primarily be done in Indiana, Bussert says, and though the company dealt with supply chain challenges during the pandemic, they are now waiting on funding to build and release the first 300 cushions, which will be used in pilot programs and clinical trials, as well as by early adopters.
However, Bussert says there are applications for the technology beyond wheelchairs.
“We will follow that up with a full-size mattress topper that uses the same technology and follows the same paradigm of affordable, effective prevention,” she said. “Eventually, though, we’re going to expand into the consumer space offering comfort products for long-haul truckers, Uber drivers, call center workers, frequent fliers and more.”
The inspiration for the cushion came from a former patient of Bussert’s, who was suffering from severe bed sores and said he couldn’t afford the $4,000 cushion prescribed to him by his doctor.
“I knew that with my technical background and my healthcare knowledge I was in a position to not only engineer a better solution but to design it so that it could be manufactured and sold at a price point that anybody who needed it could afford it. Now, we’re not all altruistic; there’s a huge business case, and we fully intend to become the standard of care in bed sore prevention not only around our country but around the world.”