InfraScan Inc.

Article preview from Start-Up - November, 2011

InfraScan Inc. has developed a handheld device for detecting bleeding in the brain in head trauma patients. Such trauma typically causes blood from ruptured vessels to pool in the skull cavity. The trapped blood compresses the brain and increases intracranial pressure, which leads to brain damage. However by beaming near-infrared light at the brain and then analyzing the light reflected back at the device, the Infrascanner reveals the presence or non-presence of an intracranial hematoma, for triage or follow-up diagnostics.

InfraScan Inc.

Article preview from Start-Up - November, 2011

For those first responders or physicians evaluating head trauma who consider themselves Trekkies, science fiction has now become reality, as is often the case. Enthusiastic fans of the television series Star Trek may remember episodes in which a USS Enterprise crew member had his injured head examined, noninvasively, by a handheld device.

Fast backward to 2011. InfraScan Inc. has developed a handheld device for detecting bleeding in the brain in head trauma patients. The start-up believes its Infrascanner will save lives because head trauma typically causes blood from ruptured vessels to pool in the skull cavity. The trapped blood compresses the brain and increases intracranial pressure (ICP), which leads to brain damage. However, by beaming near-infrared (NIR) light at the brain, then analyzing the light reflected back at the device, the Infrascanner reveals the presence or non-presence of an intracranial hematoma, for triage or follow-up diagnostics.

InfraScan is targeting four markets for its NIR platform: emergency medicine outside a hospital environment (ambulances), emergency medicine within hospitals (either scanning ER patients or monitoring trauma patients in the intensive care unit), pediatric emergency medicine and battlefield operations for the military. Worldwide, this represents about 10 million head trauma cases annually (close to two million cases in the US alone), translating into slightly less than a $3 billion yearly market.

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