AFIC Start-Ups

Navis Medical, Inc. (NMI) is a start-up medical device company that is developing a Variable Control Guidewire System (VCGS); an innovative guidewire technology that significantly improves endovascular navigation and eliminates or reduces the need for multiple catheters and guidewires required during invasive peripheral vascular (PV) and cardiovascular (CV) diagnostic or interventional radiologic procedures. NMI's innovative vascular surgical system improves procedural efficiency, reduces procedure cost and lowers patient risk. AFIC is supporting the design, development and prototyping of the company's introductory product – the Side Entry Controller, one of the components of the VCGS. The company will generate early revenue by forming non-exclusive OEM relationships with multiple major medical device companies for worldwide distribution of this controller.

ZIN Medical, Inc., a joint venture between The Cleveland Clinic and ZIN Technologies, Inc., is developing innovative products, systems and solutions in the rapidly growing remote bio-monitoring market. Through partnerships with service providers in the Pre- and Post-Operative, Home Health Care and Clinical Trial segments, Zin Medical will deliver a more robust solution to the end user that will help to greatly reduce patient visits and costs while increasing testing frequency, convenience, and overall quality of health care. AFIC is supporting the testing and development of Zin Medical's vMetrics™ monitoring system – a modular, easily configurable, wireless and portable biometric data capture and real-time transmittal system. Of particular interest to AFIC is the application for home monitoring of patients receiving endocardial or epicardial ablation procedures for atrial fibrillation.

ReVasc Technologies, Inc. is a medical device company dedicated to the commercialization of an innovative temporary endovascular bypass device that will be used for removal of thrombi and revascularization in patients experiencing acute ischemic stroke. The company and its product are of particular interest to AFIC by virtue that stroke is a key co-morbidity factor for patients suffering from atrial fibrillation. In fact, individuals with atrial fibrillation are about 5 times more likely to experience a stroke than individuals without this arrhythmia.

Other Start-Ups: In addition to the above Cleveland Clinic new ventures contributing to the health and well being of individuals with AF, AFIC is exploring several additional start-up opportunities. We are looking to create a joint venture with a commercial partner to develop a product for the stimulation of epicardial ganglia (nerve network rich fat pads on the outer surface of the heart) as a means to control certain types of atrial fibrillation. We are also exploring the possibility of building a company around the core technology known as the Semantics Database, a powerful new data structure enabling previously unattainable insights in healthcare and beyond. We expect to have both ventures fully operational early in 2008.