United InnoMed targets Hong Kong for heart device trials after new funding

Shanghai-based medical device start-up United InnoMed plans to collaborate with medical institutions in Hong Kong on clinical studies with the aim of commercialising an artificial intelligence-driven device for treating and managing patients with heart failure.

Targeting chronic heart failure patients, the device would be a “two-in-one” instrument serving both therapeutic and diagnostic functions, according to founder and CEO Wang Li. The firm hopes to cut the risks and costs of implanting two separate devices for such cases under most existing situations, he added.

“Many Chinese heart failure patients are willing to have a therapeutic device implanted, but most would be [opposed] to having another device lodged for real-time monitoring,” he said in an interview last week.

“Our two-in-one concept is similar to smartphones. Before they were developed, we needed a camera, a phone and a laptop to do what can be done in one device today.”

So far, only two implantable monitoring devices have been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for monitoring pulmonary pressure daily from home, he added.

Hong Kong could be one of the trial sites as part of the firm’s international development effort, Wang said.