Avail Medsystems Archives - Medical Design Sourcing

After Intuitive, Shockwave and Avail, Daniel Hawkins is now CEO at AI-powered MRI software startup Vista.ai

Former Avail Medsystems CEO Daniel Hawkins is now president and CEO of Vista.ai. [Photo courtesy of Avail Medsystems]Avail Medsystems founder and former CEO Daniel Hawkins has a new job as president and CEO of MRI software startup Vista.ai.

Palo Alto, California-based Vista.ai (founded and incorporated as HeartVista) makes AI-guided software for automating magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) exams.

Vista.ai was founded by Chief Medical Officer Bob Hu, Chief Architect and Head of Research Juan Santos and Chief Technology Officer William Overall. Its advisory board includes Stanford University doctors and professors and the radiology chair at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

The company won FDA 510(k) clearances for its HeartVista Workstation with RTHawk application software for the acquisition of real-time and accelerated images from GE Healthcare whole-body MRI systems in 2014, 2017 and 2017. In 2019, the FDA cleared the company’s AI-assisted One Cli…

Avail Medsystems tech sold to robotics startup founded by former Auris leaders

The Avail Medsystems telepresence console beams video, audio and information to laptops and tablets. [Photo courtesy of Avail Medsystems]Medical robotics startup Mendaera has purchased the technology of Avail Medsystems and hired some of its employees, Mendaera co-founder and CEO Josh DeFonzo said in an exclusive interview.

The deal includes “substantially all” of Avail’s assets, said DeFonzo, who offered new details on his company’s objectives as it exits stealth mode.

He declined to disclose financial terms of the deal.

Avail shut down last year for lack of funding. DeFonzo said Mendaera will support customers that were using the existing Avail technology and consoles as its R&D group works on the product roadmap regarding console size and/or features in the coming quarters. However, Avail’s partnership with Medtronic is not part of the transaction, he said.

“We certainly would be happy to work with Medtronic…

The top medtech trends of 2023

The top medtech trends of 2023 included innovations such as artificial intelligence, new GLP-1 weight loss drugs and some long-awaited medtech finally receiving regulatory nods.

With health providers facing additional challenges on top of an ever-uncertain economic environment, medtech companies also made major readjustments: layoffs, spinoffs, reorganizations and much more.

Here are the top stories that caught the attention of MassDevice readers and editors in 2023.

Top 2023 medtech trend No. 10: Questions about GLP-1 drugs

U.S. health providers wrote more than 9 million prescriptions in just three months for Wegovy, Ozempic and similar glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) weight loss drugs, according to analytics firm Trilliant Health. The popularity and initial effectiveness of the new drugs had medtech industry analysts asking a lot of questions about how the potential health benefits could reduce demand for devices. Medical device executives, however, we…

Find solutions to your most demanding medtech problem at DeviceTalks West

Add some essentials to your toolbox with engineering expertise from our upcoming show in California.

Intuitive President Dave Rosa will give a keynote interview at DeviceTalks West 2023. [Photo courtesy of Intuitive]

In the medical device industry, stubborn problems can cost millions in development expenses and delay the introduction of new life-saving tools and technologies.

That’s why we build our DeviceTalks meetings as a forum where successful medical device engineers, manufacturers and market-builders can share their best practices, providing solutions that help clear hurdles, speed product development and potentially save lives.

DeviceTalks attendees leave our meeting with notebooks full of critical advice and pockets full of business cards. We’ll help fill both at DeviceTalks West, which takes place Oct. 18-19 at the Santa Clara Convention Center in California. You can view the full agenda on our…

Telepresence technology is accelerating medical device development while broadening and deepening relationships between medtech and customers

An expanding customer base, rapidly advancing technology and intense cost pressures are driving medtech companies to use surgical telepresence to cost effectively meet customer needs, enhance customer relationships, develop new products faster and empower healthcare providers to raise the standard of care.

By Daniel Hawkins, Avail Medsystems

The Avail Medsystems console brings remote experts into the operating room virtually. [Photo courtesy of Avail Medsystems]The medical technology medtech industry is relentlessly challenged to efficiently maintain growth, fund innovation, and provide an appropriate return to shareholders. Over the last decade, this has become increasingly difficult due to myriad challenges resulting from rapid expansion in the number of sites of service, declining reimbursement, relentless pricing pressures and increasing technical complexity across the industry.

Throughout my 30-year medtech career, I have touched every aspect of the product …

Telepresence technology is accelerating medical device development while broadening and deepening relationships between medtech companies and their customers

An expanding customer base, rapidly advancing technology and intense cost pressures are driving medtech companies to use surgical telepresence to cost effectively meet customer needs, enhance customer relationships, develop new products faster and empower healthcare providers to raise the standard of care.

By Daniel Hawkins, Avail Medsystems

The Avail Medsystems console brings remote experts into the operating room virtually. [Photo courtesy of Avail Medsystems]

The medical technology medtech industry is relentlessly challenged to efficiently maintain growth, fund innovation, and provide an appropriate return to shareholders. Over the last decade, this has become increasingly difficult due to myriad challenges resulting from rapid expansion in the number of sites of service, declining reimbursement, relentless pricing pressures and increasing technical complexity across the industry.

Throughout my 30-yea…

Avail Medsystems secures telehealth agreement with Premier

Avail Medsystems announced recently that it received a national group purchasing agreement for telehealth with Premier, Inc.

Made effective Jan. 1, 2023, the agreement allows Premier members to take advantage of special pricing and terms pre-negotiated by Premier for the placement of Avail’s telepresence technology in operating rooms. They can also use Avail to live stream procedures to providers. This can take place throughout a facility or across health systems for medical education, training and clinical collaboration.

Santa Clara, California–based Avail designed its telepresence to enable physicians and the industry to be virtually present in operating or procedure rooms. Clinical teams can invite remote healthcare providers and medical device experts to this virtual experience. They can learn, share knowledge, collaborate or provide product expertise, both audibly and visually.

Avail’s mobile console features built-for-the-OR aud…

How Medtronic and Avail will accelerate stroke care innovation

Avail Medsystems’ consoles connect neurosurgeons with Medtronic Neurovascular sales reps, commercial teams and stroke experts. [Image courtesy of Avail]

Medtronic Neurovascular and Avail Medsystems have signed an agreement to use Avail’s operating room consoles during stroke procedures, the leaders of both businesses told Medical Design & Outsourcing this week.

Medtronic will pay to place several hundred Avail consoles around the U.S. in the next few years. The deal enables the medtech giant to connect virtually with neurosurgeons, Medtronic Neurovascular President Dan Volz said in an interview. (Read more details of the deal at our sister publication MassDevice.)

Avail’s consoles provide live-streaming video, audio and imaging data between surgeons in operating rooms and experts elsewhere. They can watch on a laptop or tablet and offer real-time feedback.

Medtronic Neurovascular goes remote with Avail Medsystems deal

Avail Medsystems’ consoles connect neurosurgeons with Medtronic Neurovascular sales reps, commercial teams and stroke experts. [Image courtesy of Avail]Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) Neurovascular will pay to use hundreds of Avail Medsystems consoles in operating rooms across the country under a first-of-its-kind deal, leaders of both businesses told MassDevice this week.

The Medtronic unit will use Avail’s operating room telepresence technology to connect virtually with neurosurgeons and other care providers as they treat stroke patients, Medtronic Neurovascular President Dan Volz said in an interview. The deal covers several hundred Avail consoles, he said.

Avail Medsystems’ consoles send video, audio and imaging data to remote users of the Avail app on laptops and tablets. [Image courtesy of Avail]Additionally, the consoles will let surgeons confer with other physicians and experts over the system. Avail’s system offers two-way visual, audio and data…

Avail Medsystems plans to roll out first third-party software integration

The Avail Medsystems console brings remote experts into the operating room virtually. [Photo courtesy of Avail Medsystems]

Avail Medsystems is testing a third-party software integration that it plans to launch in the coming months.

Avail executives said they hope it will be the first of many partnerships with medical technology developers of software or algorithms that could be useful in the operating room.

Avail CEO Daniel Hawkins expects to launch the software integration in the first quarter of 2023, he told Medical Design & Outsourcing after a panel discussion at DeviceTalks West in Santa Clara, California. He declined to name his company’s partner, but offered some details as the product goes through UI and customer experience testing.

“A remote user can pull up that software and optimize the workflow in a specialty category that really benefits from workflow enhancement,̶…

Avail Medsystems plans to roll out first third-party software integration

The Avail Medsystems console brings remote experts into the operating room virtually. [Photo courtesy of Avail Medsystems]

Avail Medsystems is testing a third-party software integration that it plans to launch in the coming months.

Avail executives said they hope it will be the first of many partnerships with medical technology developers of software or algorithms that could be useful in the operating room.

Avail CEO Daniel Hawkins expects to launch the software integration in the first quarter of 2023, he told Medical Design & Outsourcing after a panel discussion at DeviceTalks West in Santa Clara, California. He declined to name his company’s partner, but offered some details as the product goes through UI and customer experience testing.

“A remote user can pull up that software and optimize the workflow in a specialty category that really benefits from workflow enhancement,̶…

Avail expands network with 50th medtech contract

[Image courtesy of Avail Medsystems]Avail announced today that it marked the milestone of adding a 50th medtech organization to its telepresence network.

Santa Clara, California-based Avail develops telemedicine equipment that can connect surgeons, interventional specialists and medical device sales reps, creating a set of purpose-built hardware and software that’s exactly the same in every location it’s installed.

The company said in a news release that the latest contract puts the company in a position to enable hundreds of thousands of people to collaborate, educate and share surgical and medtech expertise between operating rooms and remote locations in real-time.

“The Avail platform was built to connect the medtech industry more frequently, efficiently and seamlessly to surgeons and interventionalists, enabling them to work together more closely to advance medicine,” Daniel Hawkins, CEO of Avail, said in the release. “With this excitin…