Friday, October 3, 2008

Startup has Rx for better medical waste handling

By Stephen DeSantis

An Andover-based technology firm is trying to change the medical waste management game by offering a way for health-care facilities to shave costs, reduce the spread of infection and help the environment, all at the same time.

Infection Management Inc.’s Pathogen Reduction System (PPS) is an on-site sterilization machine built to eliminate the need to transfer  chemical, biological and radioactive material via hazardous waste management companies.

The company is gathering between $500,000 and $800,000 in seed funding — along with help from friends and family — to finalize its prototype. It will eventually seek $3 million in a Series A round of financing for commercialization, officials said.

In hospitals, doctors’ offices and research laboratories across the nation, medical waste is collected in carefully designed containers. The process is highly regulated and costs those organizations big money in vendor fees, training and compliance costs.

The machine is small enough — about the size of a small refrigerator — that it can be placed close to the waste, explained John Carlson, who helped commercialize Infection Management and is acting as its chief strategy and financial officer.

One of the main selling points of the RPS is that it will reduce the spread of pathogens, the company stated. Once the material is decontaminated it can be thrown away as normal trash.
The system would reduce trucking and eliminate hazardous waste being transported through communities, said Bob Kodis, who invented the technology.

Most facilities outsource the removal of medical waste, said Robert Deslauriers, chief executive officer at Sutton-based National Waste Management Inc. However, he noted that a big reason for that is because the regulatory requirements for handling the material are complicated and facilities do not have the in-house knowledge to do it.

“It (an in-house system) would be a difficult proposition for hospitals because they don’t understand the enormity of compliance issues. Today, hospitals would need a department of several people, with degrees in many different areas, just to manage it,” he said.

Carlson conceded that with the array of expertise needed, it would be daunting for a small company and so Infection Management will look to partner with a distributor that has those specialized skills.

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), about 100,000 people die each year from infections contracted in health-care facilities. Although Infection Management does not claim to be able to solve that problem, it stated that its technology is one solution among many that should be considered.

In the 1990s Kodis, now 86, researched the system; but progress stalled until 2007 when Infection Management CEO Jon Stumpf and Carlson happened upon his invention. Kodis, who founded Braintree computer company, Di-An Controls Inc., had  invested more than $3 million of his own money in the system.

“Decentralizing the system is possible. Medical waste is becoming an increasingly big concern, especially as more and more tools become plastic and disposable in health care,” said Karen Nelson, senior vice president of clinical affairs at the Massachusetts Hospital Association.