TendoNova wants to shake up the medical industry with a tool they say provides a simpler, less expensive and more effective treatment for chronic tendon pain.
Roy D. Wallen, the company’s CEO (pictured), says the Ocelot is a mechanical oscillation tool that goes under the skin to break up tissue and prompt healing. “Sometimes you have to disrupt tissue to get the body to heal,” Wallen says. “This process is like taking a bag of rocks and turning it into a bag of sand—a homogenous mix that can heal.”
Wallen says this is a leap forward for treatment because currently there’s no small, simple tool like it. He says patients will be able to receive treatment in a doctor’s office or clinic. “The Ocelot makes it a [streamlined] process with a dramatically lower cost—about one third of hospital treatment.”
When the device is inserted and treatment is under way, software shows the condition of the tissue. Any tablet or cellphone can be used as a display, eliminating the expense to build and purchase such components.
Wallen says 30 million Americans suffer from tendon pain caused by repetitive motion injury, including runners, tennis players, construction workers, flight attendants and others on their feet all day or those who do a lot of walking. “If you don’t allow [the tendon] to heal, the chronic pain problem continues. We can stop the malformation of tissue and allow it to reform and heal,” he says.
TendoNova earned the first-place honor and $150,000 at TechOut, the NH Tech Alliance’s startup competition, in November. Wallen says TendoNova will also receive an additional $100,000 in funding in a match grant and will continue to raise money to bring the Ocelot to market. Where Wallen is in talks with NH companies regarding manufacturing, a final decision regarding production has not been made.