Fund Created for Point-of-Care Diagnostics, Treatment

(PublicDomainPictures, Pixabay)

16 May 2017. A venture capital company is beginning a $60 million investment fund that plans to finance start-up enterprises providing point-of-care diagnostics and medical treatments. The TealTech Fund’s first recipient is TealNet Mobile Medical Office, a new company that aims to offer on-site diagnostics and telemedicine.

The TealTech Fund is a creation of Torrey Pines Investment in San Diego supporting new enterprises that devise different models and technologies for delivering health services, including in-home and virtual care, employing advanced technologies such as deep learning and other applications of artificial intelligence. Other companies in Torrey Pines Investment’s portfolio are biotechnology firms specializing in central nervous system, cancer, and virology discoveries.

“The TealTech Fund, says Nikolay Savchuk, Managing Partner at Torrey Pines Investment in a company statement, “focuses on the three main directions of fundamental shifts in health care: the medical technologies innovations, digital care, and artificial intelligence tools. We believe that the future of health care lies in the accessibility and flexibility that digital care and point-of-care diagnostics and treatment provide, as well as in the precision and convenience that computer-assisted tools help deliver.”

The fund’s first investment is TealNet Mobile Medical Office, or MMO, a San Diego company providing in-home care, supported by a package of FDA-approved point-of-care diagnostics that can be performed on-site. The “package” in this case is more than figurative — a self-contained rolling suitcase, called the MD TealBag with electronics and consumable supplies to perform fingerstick blood and urine tests, pathogen analysis, cardiovascular tests including electrocardiogram and pulse oximeter, cholesterol panels, glucose meter, tests for HIV and sexually-transmitted diseases, and spirometer to assess lung capacity.

The TealNet MMO also has a multifunctional camera for inspecting skin, ears, and larynx, as well as a hand-held ultrasound machine. The company says it can deliver test results in 15 minutes, compared to conventional technologies that require 1 or more days to complete. Test results are captured in a standardized software format for transfer to electronic health records.

TealNet MMO appears to be a creation as well of Torrey Pines Investment. The company’s CEO is Gelena Lifchitz, also business development director at Torrey Pines Investment, and the two enterprises share a common mailing address in San Diego.

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