University Start Up Commercializes Feeding Tube Research

Smart feeding tube prototype (University of Utah)

A start up company founded by a University of Utah medical researcher is developing a feeding tube for patients that reduces the risks and casualties from misplacement. The company, Veritract Inc. in Salt Lake City, was started by John Fang, clinical director of the university’s gastroenterology division.

The privately held Veritract is developing what they call a smart feeding tube (pictured left), with a live camera and steering mechanism that enables doctors to place feeding tubes into the stomach with much more accuracy than current technology allows. Misplacement of feeding tubes in hospitals is not uncommon; the university says each year in the U.S. some 40,000 feeding tubes are mistakenly placed into a patient’s lungs, which results in an estimated 6,000 deaths.

Fang designed the smart feeding tube as part of the university’s BioDesign program. That program creates partnerships between clinicians at the university’s health sciences center and student engineering teams. The clinicians supply the ideas, clinical relevancy, and mentoring, while the engineering students develop requirements, build prototypes, and conduct testing. University of Utah business school students later helped Fang conduct a market analysis and write a business plan for the company.

Also a partner in the BioDesign program is the university’s technology commercialization office that recognized the market potential of Fang’s and the students’ work. Veritract has since received grants from the Utah Science Technology and Research Initiative, the Utah State Centers of Excellence, and the University of Utah Research Foundation.

The company recently secured early-stage venture funding of more than $800,000 from funding partners Kickstart Seed Fund, Salt Lake Life Science Angels, Knox Opportunity Fund, and the University Venture Fund. Fang and Veritract plan to use the funds to further refine the product and seek regulatory approval from the Food and Drug Administration.

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