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Somerville startup Smart Surfaces Inc. is looking to raise money to continue its work to cheaply and efficiently solve the widespread problem of bedsores at its source, using a special mattress.
These ulcers are caused when the patient’s own weight becomes concentrated for long periods of time on pressure points on the skin. To remedy the problem, the Smart Surfaces’ reactive mattress has a surface that contains more than a thousand air “diaphragms” that can more evenly distribute the patient’s weight and avoid the conditions that cause bedsores. Ultimately, the bed will remember the patient body print and store information and even permit remote monitoring and control.
Smart Surfaces hopes to raise about $100,000, possibly from angel investors, early this year, to create a prototype of the production mattress. Before 2010 officials expect to raise another $1 million to bankroll an entry to the market.
“We’re claiming it’s less expensive and more effective than what’s out there,” said Tim Moutafis, the founder and interim CEO of Smart Surfaces, who is looking for a permanent CEO. “This is a very special device and there’s a special need for it.”
He estimates the market for these mattresses is worth $1.5 billion in the United States.
Currently, a typical hospital bed mattress requires costly hospital staff to move the patient around on the bed to avoid ulcer creation. There are other elaborate automated bed systems, but they are too expensive to be used in most situations before the bedsores break out, claims Smart Surfaces.
The company plans to sell its mattresses for about $6,000, compared to top of the line products on the market that cost between $25,000 and $35,000. Potential competitors already in the market include Batesville, Ind.-based, Hill Rom Inc., which makes hospital beds and equipment. Another rival is San Antonio-based Kinetic Concepts Inc., which provides specialty hospital beds and mattress replacement systems and overlays.
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