Carlsmed raises $2.5M to create personalized implants for spinal surgery

The company is currently incubating at EvoNexus

While it's not talked about as much as other areas of healthcare, there's a lot of money being spent on our spines. It's estimated that approximately $90 billion is spent on the diagnosis and management of low back pain in the U.S. every year. On top of that, there's an additional $10 to $20 billion in economic losses thanks to productivity

"Millions of adults annually seek treatment for complex spine disorders. The current standard of care is to use predefined sizes and configurations of implants to correct the spine through a trial and error method during surgery. This leads to extended surgery times and post operative complications," said Mike Cordonnier, CEO and co-founder of Carlsmed, a company that makes personalized surgical implants for patients with debilitating spine deformities.

This week, the company announced the close of an oversubscribed $2.5 million seed round led by Cove Fund II. Also participating in the round were Wavemaker Three-Sixty Health and Device of Tomorrow Capital, as well as "individual MedTech investors."

Along with the funding, the company also revealed that it appointment Alexander Arrow, MD, CFA, as Chief Financial Officer, and Shariq Hussain as Chief Information Officer, to lead the company’s digital development and operations.

Founded in 2018, Carlsmed makes 3D printed spine devices that are built on demand for each individual patient and provided directly to hospitals through qualified distributors. It uses the patients anatomy and machine learning algorithms to create optimized surgical plans and 3D printed implants.

"This methodology can reduce surgical time and decrease post operative complications," Cordonnier explained.

"Once a hospital is setup with the Carlsmed system, a patient receives imaging, such as X-ray, CT and MRI, and images are transferred to Carlsmed. The aprevo system creates a surgical plan that is reviewed by the surgeon and patient, and upon surgeon approval, 3D printed implants are created and packaged sterile for surgery."

Carlsmed, which is currently incubating at EvoNexus, and which was recently selected as a Cool Company, is currently pre-revenue, though it has already identified more than 50 institutions to participate in its year one launch. The company will use the new funding to complete its FDA regulatory clearance and initial commercial launch of the system.

Success for Carlsmed will come "when personalized medical devices are able to improve outcomes and a lower total cost of care," Cordonnier told me.

"The future of healthtech is truly personalized medicine on a large scale. Using technologies such as 3D printing, AI/Machine Learning, and Big Data will allow for improved diagnosis and personalized treatment protocols and devices."