Radio-frequency ID tags are often used to keep track of vehicle fleets, inventory and cargo being shipped around the world. But a Pittsburgh company is developing the technology to keep track of a much smaller area: the confines of the human body.
ClearCount Medical Solutions is using RFID to remedy a situation that most people don’t even want to contemplate: doctors accidentally leaving surgical sponges inside of patients after invasive surgery.
Not only has ClearCount secured FDA approval and a major distribution partnership, the company tapped its two main investors for a $5 million Series B round to continue developing its tracking products. The round was co-led by Draper Triangle Ventures and Smithfield Trust, and brings the company’s total venture backing to $16.4 million since 2004 .
ClearCount makes RFID tags, readers and related software that doctors use to avoid their top “surgical never,” company spokesman Jim Sweeney said: Sewing up a patient with a sponge or other price of equipment left inside.
“According to the data, about once every 1,500 intra-abdominal surgeries” a sponge or other item is accidentally left inside,” Sweeney said.
The problem is widespread enough that Medline Industries Inc., a big supplier of equipment to doctors and hospitals, has included ClearCount’s “SmartSponge” system in its inventory, Sweeney said.
ClearCount implants RFID chips about the size of a dime inside of surgical sponges, many of which are used in a typical surgery, company materials said.
Doctors using the ClearCount sponges place a tracking device — which the company also makes — in close proximity to the patient. The device keeps track of the sponges being used, and communicates with a wireless device called a wand, which ClearCount also makes.
When a surgery is completed, a doctor waves the wand around the patient and surrounding areas, and gets a complete tally of the locations of the sponges.
The Series B funding will help the company develop tracking products for other medical equipment, Sweeney said. ClearCount is working on implanting RFID tags inside surgical instruments, the company’s Web site said.
