Founded April 2013
Stage Business development
Investors The Trendlines Group, private investors
CEO Lior Margalit
Omeq Medical is developing a single-use, smart epidural needle system for safe, accurate epidural injections.
Attached to a standard epidural needle, a special blunted probe repeatedly monitors the dynamic forces exerted by the surrounding tissues and accurately detects needle penetration into the epidural space. Once successful positioning is confirmed with a visual signal, the device’s safety mechanism protects the patient from inadvertent puncture of the spine.
IP
R&D and QA engineer, EndyMed, a medical device start-up; naval officer and captain, Israeli Navy; BSc, biomedical engineering, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Extensive experience in managing early-stage medical device companies; MSc, biomedical engineering, Tel Aviv University; BSc, software engineering and industrial management, Tel Aviv Engineering College
Director of the Institute of Pain Medicine, Rambam Health Care Campus; Associate Professor of Neurology and Pain Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology; MD, Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University; widely published
Clinical Associate, Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, Johns Hopkins Medicine Bayview Medical Center; anesthesiologist, Baltimore Pain Management Center; MD, University of Kentucky College of Medicine; member of American Board of Anesthesiology and American Society of Pain Management
Anesthesiologist responsible for the Outpatients’ Pain Therapy Centre of the Teaching Hospital of Bologna, Italy; assistant professor; MD (cum laude), University of Bologna Medical School
Anesthesiologist, specialist in pain management and palliative care; Pain Management and Palliative Care, West Clinic, Memphis, Tennessee; Member, American Board of Anesthesiology; MD, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
Locating the epidural space that surrounds the spinal cord requires extensive physician training and relies heavily on feel. Drugs (“epidurals”) injected into this very narrow space (only 4 millimeters wide) are used for anesthesia and analgesic purposes both during and after surgery.
Inaccurate needle placement occurs in up to 30% of cases, resulting in ineffective drug delivery, multiple insertions, and post-complications such as severe headaches or nerve damage.
In the United States, over 20 million epidural injections are administered annually, with an additional 19 million injections in the rest of the world. Industry leaders control this $1 billion global market with standard epidural kits.
