CloudCath, a provider of remote monitoring platform for catheter-based treatments, completed a $12 million Series A financing round. Capital Integral led the round with participation from FundRx, The Capital Partnership, Coconut Tree Investments, and Stanford University’s StartX Fund.
The company will use the latest funds to commercialize its first product that remotely monitors patients undergoing at-home peritoneal dialysis and develop additional applications using its proprietary technology.
The CloudCath remote monitoring platform analyzes drainage fluid, utilizing its data analysis algorithms to detect fluid property deviations, and automatically sends notifications to healthcare providers, allowing earlier intervention in cases of catheter-associated complications like infection.
“End-stage renal disease, one of the costliest chronic diseases in the U.S., is devastating to patients. The CloudCath technology enables patients and caregivers to easily monitor fluid parameters for early signs of complications, including infection, in real-time, allowing dialysis providers to intervene much earlier than the existing standard of care,” said CloudCath co-founder and CEO Aly ElBadry. “This funding will speed commercialization of the CloudCath system, pending FDA clearance, and will also support our goal of offering remote monitoring for infectious disease management in multiple additional applications. We are looking forward to enabling better patient care and to playing an integral part of the big data revolution in infectious disease healthcare management.”
According, a July 2019 White House executive order on kidney care, 80% of new patients with the end-stage renal disease will be treated with either kidney transplantation or home dialysis by 2025, a significant improvement from current rates, which are below 20%. According to the U.S. Renal Data System, almost 750,000 U.S. patients are affected by end-stage renal disease, with the number of diagnosed patients rising at a rate of 5% to 7% annually. Treatment for the end-stage renal disease accounts for nearly 7% of Medicare’s budget, despite affecting fewer than 1% of Medicare beneficiaries. For patients undergoing peritoneal dialysis (PD), rates of infection-driven hospitalization are as high as 0.5 hospitalizations per patient-year.
“Studies have shown that home-based kidney care generally improves outcomes, improves the patient experience and provides a much better value to dialysis care providers. But many patients lack the confidence to perform dialysis at home, in part due to the lack of monitoring and the disconnect between the home environment and the care teams. Moreover, they fear an infection that may lead to pain and require hospitalization,” said Dr. Glenn Chertow, Chief of the Division of Nephrology at Stanford University School of Medicine, who serves as Chairman of CloudCath’s Clinical Advisory Board. “With the CloudCath device, we expect to see wider adoption of peritoneal dialysis by patients and nephrologists, and longer, safer, reliance on home dialysis therapy where kidney transplantation is not feasible.”
According to Mercom Q4 and Annual 2019, Digital Health Funding and M&A Report, remote monitoring companies raised over $500 million since 2013.
