MedLumics Appoints Cardiovascular Device Expert to Board of Directors

MedLumics, a cardiology device company specializing in the application of advanced optical coherence tomography (OCT) technology, has announced the appointment of cardiovascular device veteran Tim Lenihan to its board of directors. With vast experience in field of electrophysiology, Lenihan will help guide the continued advancement of the company’s catheter ablation technology for the treatment of atrial fibrillation.

“We are very fortunate to add Tim to our board of directors given his domain expertise in catheter-based medical technologies, specifically in the cardiac ablation field,” said Eduardo Margallo, CEO of MedLumics. “His experience and insights will undoubtedly make an enormous contribution to our company.”

Lenihan is currently a partner at MD Start, a European incubator focused on finding, funding and supporting the development of new medical technologies. Before MD Start, he was founder and CEO of Contract Medical International GmbH, a contract developer and manufacturer of catheter-based medical devices. He began his career at Arrow International, where he headed the ablation program and electrophysiology products and later became the European manager of research and development.

Lenihan joins MedLumics’ board on the heels of a successful single-case pre-clinical feasibility study of the company’s novel ablation catheter, which is capable of simultaneous radiofrequency ablation and imaging based on the company’s polarization-sensitive optical coherence reflectometry. The study, which was published in the Journal of Innovations in Cardiac Management in August, showed that the combined technology may help improve clinical outcomes by providing direct, real-time information on ablation efficacy.¹

“I’m excited to join the board of MedLumics at such a pivotal time in its development as it continues to advance its novel 360 degree imaging ablation catheter. Better understanding of tissue viability at the ablation site is critical to successful ablation of AF,” said Lenihan.

Founded in 2009, MedLumics is an ISO1348 certified cardiology device company specializing in advanced optical coherence tomography (OCT) devices. Its proprietary integrated optics platform technology combines optical and electrical components in a miniature chip, enabling for the first time complex multiview endoscopes of the size of a grain of rice and ultra-portable, hand-held OCT systems that produce high-quality real-time images. The systems allow physicians to improve diagnostic and therapeutic procedures through a non-invasive optical evaluation of tissue. MedLumics received a 3.5 million euro ($4.7 million) Series A financing from joint investors Ysios Capital Partners and “la Caixa” (through Caixa Capital Risc) in November 2011.

Reference

1. Herranz, D. et al. “Percutaneous RF Ablation Guided by Polarization-sensitive Optical Coherence Reflectometry in an Integrated Catheter: Experimental Evaluation of the Procedure,” Journal of Innovations in Cardiac Rhythm Management, August 2015.