Hoana Medical gets federal OK to start marketing
Hoana Medical, a Honolulu-based startup spawned by the local engineering and technology firm Oceanit Laboratories, has received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to begin marketing its flagship product, the LG1 Intelligent Medical Vigilance System.
Billed by the company as a "seamless, invisible sensing technology," the device allows doctors and nurses to monitor heart and breathing rates and movements of patients in bed with no electrodes, cuffs or other direct connections.
Initially, the company plans to focus sales on the medical-surgical areas of hospitals, often referred to as the general-care floor. Hoana estimates that there are close to 8,000 acute care hospitals with an approximate combined total of 1 million medical surgical beds.
These kinds of numbers, combined with a national nursing shortage that's expected to worsen, means the market is ripe for a product that can make it easier to monitor patients, said Ray Hunt, Hoana's vice president of marketing.
Hoana initially plans to sell service contracts that will enable hospitals to begin using the devices and paying for them through operating budgets rather than their capital budgets, Hunt said. Executives plan to meet in Honolulu next week to discuss marketing strategies in more detail, Hunt said.
Meanwhile, he said, Hoana has been cleared for takeoff.
"The rocket ride begins," Hunt said.