Irish start-up FeelTect receives €50,000 funding to continue the development of its Tight Alright device, used to treat venous leg ulcers
Galway-based wound care company, FeelTect, were announced as winners of an EIT Health Headstart award worth €50,000 after recent pitching finals held in Tangent, Trinity College Dublin’s ideas workspace. The competition saw 22 finalist teams of medtech start-ups from across UK and Ireland pitching their technologies to a panel of investors, healthcare professionals, and medtech experts.
FeelTect’s technology, Tight Alright, is a pressure sensing, connected-health device for measuring and monitoring sub-bandage pressure during compression therapy, primarily for the millions of people worldwide with venous leg ulcers (VLUs). Compression is a proven therapy for VLUs, however if it’s applied too loose, it’s ineffective, and if it’s too tight, it’s dangerous. Yet studies have shown that it can be extremely difficult for experienced healthcare professionals to achieve a targeted pressure with existing products. As such, Tight Alright aims to improve the application and maintenance of evidence-based therapy, ensuring safety while reducing healing times.
Founder and CEO, Dr Andrew Cameron, highlighted the impact the award will have on the company’s progression towards market entry, “The funding provided by EIT Health will allow us to progress the miniaturisation of Tight Alright to a truly wearable product, making it the first device capable of continuously monitoring compression therapy outside the clinical setting. We’ll also be able to further our initial clinical validation, which was supported by Health Innovation Hub Ireland, demonstrating the ability of Tight Alright to improve the achievement of targeted, evidence-based pressure during compression application”. An image of the device in operation during the Health Innovation Hub project is shown below. FeelTect was the product of the renowned BioInnovate Ireland programme, where the underlying clinical need was identified, as well as an Enterprise Ireland Commercialisation Fund project within the School of Medicine at NUI Galway, where the proof-of-concept R&D was conducted. The team are currently talking with potential strategic partners and preparing for seed round fundraising to support the progression of Tight Alright into clinical practice.
Pictured: HIHI nurse Leona Halton using Feeltect’s pressure sensing device to ensure compression bandages are applied correctly