The Medium is the Massage
Since 2002, St. Louis Park– based Tactile Systems Technologies has marketed its Flexitouch System as a treatment for lymphedema, an abnormal accumulation of lymph fluid that causes extreme swelling in the arms and legs. Now with millions in new funding, the company is pursuing a bigger opportunity.
Lymphedema affects approximately 1 million people nationwide. It can develop after surgery or be caused by trauma or the malformation of the lymph system. But its primary cause is cancer and cancer treatments. The condition is especially associated with breast cancer: One of every four breast cancer survivors develops lymphedema in an arm, according to the American Cancer Society. Affected limbs are sometimes so enlarged that they become disfigured. The skin becomes dry and hard, tissue becomes prone to infection, and wounds have a more difficult time healing.
Tactile Systems Technologies founder Irene Waldridge, a clinical therapist, began developing Flexitouch in 1995. Her system comprises a programmable controller and garments made of dozens of inflatable pockets to simulate therapeutic massage. This stimulates circulation, which prevents the lymphatic fluids from pooling and thus causing swelling.
Late last year, the company received $11.8 million in venture capital. This will allow it to bring Flexitouch into the $20 billion chronic-wound care market. Driven by a surge in the number of Americans who are diabetic, obese, or geriatric, wound care is one of the fastest-growing health care segments.
To heal properly, patients need good nutrition, good circulation, and a healthy nervous system—three things that obese, diabetic, or geriatric patients often lack. Treatment for chronic wounds can last months or even years, and usually requires regular twice-weekly visits to a clinic for outpatient care.
“The wound market is substantially larger than lymphedema,” says Tactile Systems Technologies CEO Gerald Mattys. What’s more, he says, there really aren’t any great solutions for the treatment of chronic wounds. By increasing circulation at the wound site, the Flexitouch System could speed healing.
Before joining Tactile Systems Technologies three years ago, Mattys was CEO of Minnetonka-based pharmaceutical-development company Medisyn Technologies. (Waldridge, who remains with the company, is vice president and chief technologist.) With the latest round of fundraising behind him, Mattys is looking ahead at the prospect of a new market and new data from a half-dozen wound-care clinical trials. “Now I can concentrate on the business,” he says.
