Healthcare Startup Seeks to Benefit Developing Nations

“DIIME is a medical device company working to address issues of maternal and infant health specific to low resource settings,” explains Theresa Fisher, Co-Founder of Design Innovations for Infants and Mothers Everywhere (DIIME).

Fisher says the firm arose after its founders visited Ghana to do clinical observations at Komfo Anokye, one of the country's largest hospitals.

“We were there to do a needs assessment to see what sort of problems and challenges they faced and how we could address those with new technology,” voices Fisher. She reflects that she and her co-founders observed prenatal care, general gynecology surgery, labor and delivery.

After their visit to Ghana, DIIME's founders started four projects: a multifunctional labor and delivery bed, an infant respiration monitor, a delivery and vaginal repair seat and a blood transfusion device named Hemafuse. Fisher states that, right now, Hemafuse is DIIME's primary focus.

Hemafuse would be used in developing countries to salvage patients' blood during surgery to repair ruptured ectopic pregnancies, whenever donor blood is not available, says Fisher. “An ectopic pregnancy is when the embryo implants outside the uterus,” she explains.

Fisher describes that, in the US, ectopic pregnancies are normally detected and then treated without surgery. “But, in Ghana the prenatal care is so late,” she contrasts, “Most women don't come in for prenatal care until well into the first trimester, even into the second trimester. So, what happens is the ectopic pregnancy will rupture before she even knows that it is an ectopic pregnancy.”

DIIME may be making progress with Hemafuse that could help women with ectopic pregnancies in developing countries. “We just finished up animal testing at Michigan State. We ran an experiment with pig blood to test our current prototype on the filter efficiency,” says Fisher.

“Within the next year we need to raise some significant funding in order to finance manufacturing for clinical use,” Fisher continues. “Then, ideally, we would like to get through clinical testing and regulatory approval and start marketing these devices commercially.”

“One of the big challenges in general, with medical devices, is the huge up front capital that you need to develop and test the device and then get through regulatory [approval],” says Fisher. “The time and money associated with that is astronomical compared to the startup budget.”

Fisher says, to gather additional funding, DIIME is primarily considering impact investors—investors who are looking to have a positive social impact in addition to a financial return.

Moses Lee traveled with the team during its initial visit to Ghana, and is currently Assistant Director for Student Ventures at TechArb, a University of Michigan program that provided DIIME's founders with support, a location to run their business and a $15,000 grant they received upon graduating.

“They are pushing on a venture that we think is going to be very inspiring as well as profitable,” says Lee.

He foretells, within the next year, “I think they are going to make progress with product and business relationships in Ghana. Hopefully they will be in a situation where they will be able to serve their first customer.”