NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Friday, May 15, 2015

Sisu Global Health co-founder and CEO Carolyn Yarina painted a pretty dire picture of emerging countries’ limited access to medical devices during he company’s pitch at DreamIt Health Baltimore. To tackle that problem, it is working with physicians, nurses and engineers in some of these countries to develop sanitary and safe medical devices than what they currently use that are more affordable than devices that are the standard of care in the U.S.

It is particularly interested in producing devices to support OBGYN clinics. Among its backers, aside from DreamIt Health, are the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, USAID, UKaid, VentureWell and Better Ventures.

First on the list is a device to recycle a patient’s blood during surgery called Hemafuse. Having done pre-clinical studies, it plans to do a small human feasibility trial of the device this Fall in Zimbabwe. It will involve eight to 10 patients experiencing complications in the first trimester of pregnancy. It has lined up clinical partners to do a larger clinical trial in Ghana next year.

The Grand Rapids, Michigan-based company is currently raising $1 million to support these clinical trials.