Perceptive Navigation: Fast Facts

Perceptive Navigation, LLC is a medical device company developing forward-viewing, image-guided solutions for minimally-invasive procedures

Perceptive’s first product, the Vu-Path™ Ultrasound System, fulfills a previously unmet need to quickly, safely and precisely access organs and internal structures.

Needle Guidance at Point-of-Care 
Needs Improvement

Inefficient and complicated. These are two of the words that can be used to describe current needle-related procedures, such as line placements, aspirations, injections and other interventions.

Techniques to perform these types of procedures include guidance by surface ultrasound, CT scans, X-Rays and MRIs.

The need for safe, simple, efficient needle guidance at the point of care is still unmet.

Surface ultrasound, the most common
point-of-care imaging technique, still has flaws:

Introducing the Vu-Path™
Ultrasound System

Perceptive’s first product, the Vu-Path™ Ultrasound System, allows for quick, safe and precise access to organs and internal structures.

It is the first device to allow a percutaneous (skin-to-target) needle guidance system and combines high resolution, forward-viewing ultrasound imaging technology and interventional access. It provides a precise, intuitive path to the target site, allowing providers to accurately and efficiently perform minimally-invasive interventional procedures. 

Ultimately this helps the patient and the hospital system:

• Cuts down on non-reimbursed complications
• Reduces surgical time allowing for lower costs and better margins for hospital systems
• Reduces facility and staff requirements
• Replaces the need for X-Ray, CT and MRI for certain procedures

Other key features of the our groundbreaking technology include:

• Minimally invasive
• Accurate access to internal organs
• and blood vessels
• Skin-to-site access
• One-hand operation
• Point-of-care implementation
• Two lumens (channel for imaging hardware and working portal for multiple types
  of interventional tools in field-of-view of image)
• Suited for diagnostics (e.g. biopsy), interventions (e.g. centesis, ablation)
  and therapeutic purposes (e.g. delivery of chemotherapy)

Vu-Path’s Four-Pronged Approach:

Momentum is Building

Perception Navigation is already making great strides:

Product design for Vu-Path™ is complete

• Preliminary safety and efficacy studies
• are complete
• Animal studies are complete and proven successful
• FDA has agreed on regulatory path
• Clinical study at Johns Hopkins will
• Begin in 2018
• Patents in U.S., Europe and Canada have been issued; patent portfolio covers single-use plastic sheath and ultrasound transducer
• Partnerships with reputable contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs)
• for production of transducer and procedural kits have been established

Meet the Team
 

Todd Chappell, MBA | Chief Executive Officer
Mr. Chappell has been the CEO of Perceptive Navigation for more than two years and holds seventeen years of experience with early-stage, venture-backed biotechnology companies. Mr. Chappell specializes in developing early-stage life science products from concept through to commercialization. He has been the program leader for multiple products for multiple companies – working with regulatory, quality, clinical and scientists to progress technologies from discovery to human proof-of-concept studies.

From 2000-2013, Mr. Chappell held executive positions at CombinatoRx and Shape Pharmaceuticals.  At Shape, he successfully led a single-person company from an academic lab to a Phase 2 clinical study. Shape had a successful exit to Tetralogic Pharmaceuticals and a Phase III clinical study has initiated for its lead molecule. After exiting Shape, he was an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at a private-public organization involving the National Institutes of Health to identify and commercialize early-stage therapeutics and medical devices.

Theodore Abraham, M.D. | Founder & Chief Medical Officer
Dr. Abraham is the founder of Perceptive Navigation, LLC, and currently The Meyer Friedman Distinguished Professor of Medicine at University of California in San Francisco where he is Clinical Chief of Cardiology and Director of Echocardiography.

Until July 2017, he was Professor of Medicine, Radiology and Radiologic Service and Associate Dean for Research at Johns Hopkins University. He was also Director of Echocardiography and Director Johns Hopkins HCM Center of Excellence. He is a board certified clinical cardiologist with advanced training in ultrasound.

Michael Ziparro Ph.D. | VP of Research and Development
Dr. Zipparo is an experienced scientist with knowledge across a diverse range of technology associated with electroacoustic energy conversion and associated system level control and interface. Dr. Zipparo has more than twenty years of experience in this industry as an acoustic engineer. His roles in industry include research and development, engineering pre-production, release to manufacturing and manufacturing support for ultrasound imaging arrays and cabling products.