Dune Medical Devices Names CEO

Dune Medical Devices has appointed Lori Chmura as CEO. Chmura joined Dune in January 2016 to lead Dune’s commercial activities in the United States. Originally trained as an ICU and emergency room nurse, Chmura has held roles of increasing responsibility for building and growing businesses at Medtronic plc, Covidien plc, and J&J in a career spanning more than 30 years.
 
“This is a natural evolution for a growth stage device company which will enable me to focus more intensely on expansion of our proprietary radio frequency spectroscopy platform into new devices and oncology markets,” said Dan Hashimshony, Ph.D., former CEO and founder. “I am looking forward to continuing to work with Lori and the team at Dune on a set of strategic initiatives to extend the application of Dune’s technology beyond breast cancer surgery.”
 
The first commercial product based on Dune Medical’s proprietary radio frequency (RF) spectroscopy technology is the MarginProbe. It has been helping surgeons ensure clean margins in lumpectomy procedures since 2013 and is nearing use in its 10,000th patient in October. According to multiple peer-reviewed studies, MarginProbe is shown to reduce re-excision rates in lumpectomy procedures by 50 to 79 percent.

“Lori’s considerable industry experience and contributions to Dune Medical to date give us great confidence that she will successfully lead the company as we continue to bring our technology platform to bear in oncology markets,” said Amos Goren, board chairman of Dune Medical Devices.
 
Dune’s next product, which recently earned a 3 million euros grant from the EC 2020 Horizon program, will expand the company’s surgical oncology portfolio to include a soft tissue biopsy system with its first indication in breast tissue.
 
“I am humbled by the opportunity and the confidence that Dan and the board have entrusted to me as Dune enters its next stage in commercialization,” Chmura said. “The team’s commitment to quality, passion, excellence and execution will not waiver. We will continue to uphold the company’s foundation and work to ensure that we achieve the success within our collective reach. We put unique clinically actionable information into the hands of surgeons while in the OR to help them make the best possible decisions for patient care. Improving the standard of care around cancer surgery is what we strive for each and every day.”

The MarginProbe System consists of two highly-engineered components—the Probe and the Console—designed to provide both reliable performance and ease of use for surgeons within the operating room environment. The system utilizes RF Spectroscopy in a unique and sophisticated way to analyze tissue to identify both normal and malignant cells.

The Probe is a lightweight, sterile, disposable device which the surgeon uses to control contact with the excised tissue. It connects to the Console for both electrical power and to enable the unit to establish a vacuum connection with the tissue specimen. This provides consistency in the amount of pressure applied to the tissue for optimal measurements.

The Fringe Field Sensor is an integrated element of the probe, located at the tip of the instrument. It functions as the heart of the MarginProbe System. On contact with tissue, the sensor delivers an electrical field, then captures the electromagnetic response (reflection) of the examined tissue to distinguish tissue type (normal or malignant). The low-power levels of both the instrument and the RF signals directed to the tissue assure that later examinations by the pathologist will be unaffected.

The Console incorporates a distinct module which enables the Margin Probe System to generate and collect RF signals used for margin analysis. Other modules within the unit provide electric and vacuum control, data processing and information display. A proprietary algorithm housed within the Console analyzes the bioelectric signatures from the tumor, and then compares those signatures to thousands of others in the MarginProbe database.

Dune Medical Devices was founded in 2002 by Hashimshony to realize the extraordinary medical potential of its proprietary tissue characterization technology. Offering surgeons and radiologists the real-time ability to identify cancerous tissues and react immediately, this technology holds the promise for a broad range of surgical and diagnostic applications. Dune Medical Devices is a privately held company with offices in the United States (Paoli, Pa.) and Israel.