Company Profile:
RevMedx, Inc.
RevMedx is a privately-held medical device company that designs, develops, and manufactures lifesaving medical products. Through innovation and rapid iteration, we make products that transform treatment outcomes and shift standards of care. Working closely with Special Operations Forces medics, RevMedx succeeded in developing XStat™, a first-in-kind hemostatic device for the control of bleeding from gunshot wounds on the battlefield. XStat works by injecting a group of small, rapidly-expanding sponges into a wound cavity using a syringe-like applicator. In a wound, the XStat sponges expand to fill the wound cavity within seconds after contacting blood—creating a barrier to blood flow and providing hemostatic pressure. We are incorporating XStat’s core expanding sponge technology into a portfolio of hemostatic devices to treat a wide range of wound types.
Q: Please tell us how your business idea was conceived. Was there an "aha" moment or did it evolve gradually?
A: The U.S. Army contracted our team to develop a solution for treating gunshot and shrapnel wounds that were, at the time, virtually untreatable. Their working idea was a medical version of Fix-a-Flat, the foam you squirt in punctured tires to plug the hole. All the foam concepts we tested failed because the foam would get washed out of heavily bleeding wounds. Then one of our co-founders was shopping at a Williams-Sonoma and discovered a compressed kitchen sponge that stayed flat until you splashed water on it—which caused it to pop up into a normal-sized sponge. That was our light bulb moment. Through a series of iterations, the concept was turned into XSTAT, a dose of compressed sponge pellets that are injected into an open wound with a syringe-like applicator. The sponges, which are treated with a hemostatic substance, expand to 10 times their original size in seconds, both plugging the wound and providing internal compression to stop the bleeding. The initial concept worked perfectly the first time we tested it, and we knew we were onto something.
Q: What's the most inventive, innovative, or disruptive aspect of your initiative?
A: XSTAT is the world’s first self-expanding wound dressing, and the only device FDA-approved for the treatment of junctional bleeding. It even has its own regulatory classification. The shift from focusing on a “Fix-a-Flat” foam solution to compressed sponge pellets was the key innovation. The use of sponge created a highly effective and durable product that can be manufactured at relatively low cost in a range of form factors using commonly available materials. Relative to a foam-based solution, the sponge concept drastically lowered development costs and FDA approval timeframe, and led to a truly first-in-kind device.
Q: How will it help people live to their greatest potential or contribute to making the world healthier?
A: We believe that XSTAT technology has the potential to significantly reduce death from hemorrhage in military and civilian applications. After a traumatic injury, hemorrhage is responsible for over 35 percent of pre-hospital deaths and over 40 percent of deaths within the first 24 hours, second only to the rates of death due to severe central nervous system injury. Mitigation of battlefield hemorrhage is a top priority of U.S. military trauma surgeons and researchers. Postpartum hemorrhage is responsible for over 140,000 maternal deaths annually.
Q: Five years from now, what would you like to be able to say has been your most important contribution to health?
A: Our mission is to get XSTAT into the hands of military medics as soon as possible, so they can save lives on the battlefield. Looking five years out, a next-gen XSTAT for civilian use could fundamentally change trauma medicine. In five years we would love to announce that our postpartum hemorrhage device has significantly reduced maternal mortality—which means potentially tens of thousands of lives saved, and a generation of children raised by their own mothers.
Q: What single word or phrase best describes the culture of your startup and why?
A: Relentlessly resourceful, to borrow from Paul Graham. Our culture is a fusion of military, chemistry lab, med device manufacturer, and design firm. We’re great at generating ideas, but when your customers are Special Forces medics, execution is key. To stand out in a pre-hospital market dominated by commodity products, we prototype and iterate relentlessly to drive capability up and cost and complexity down.