Medical device company Carewave Medical is looking to raise $1 million to support its wearable pain relief technology, according to an SEC filing. The Seattle-based company has already raised $150,000 and is backed by some big names in biotechnology and healthcare, the filing indicates.
Carewave co-founder and CEO Al Stephen declined to comment on the ongoing round when contacted by GeekWire. Carewave was founded in 2014 and was incubated by the Stratos Group, which includes biotech company Stratos Genomics, until 2016, Stephen said.
Stephen co-founded Stratos Group in 2001 and served as the company’s CEO until 2016, when he shifted focus to Carewave. He also helped co-found Stratos Genomics and served as the company’s CEO for nine years and he was the founder and longtime CEO of Stratos Product Development, a successful product development company that shut down suddenly in May of last year.
Also listed in the SEC filing: Harold Kawaguchi, chairman of the Stratos Group; longtime healthcare executive and member of Carewave’s board of directors Michaela Griggs; pain expert and Carewave co-founder and chief medical officer Dr. Charles Chabal; and University of Washington professor Peter Dunbar, whose LinkedIn lists him as Carewave’s secretary of the board and chief medical officer, the same role as Chabal.
According to its website, Carewave is developing a wearable device that relieves lower back and menstrual pain using “Pulsed Heat Technology,” more generically called pulsed radiofrequency technology. While scientists are unsure exactly how the technology works, it has been studied as a way to treat chronic pain since the late 1990s.
A similar technology powers a device from RecoveryRx, which is aimed at patients recovering from surgeries.
Carewave’s device, the CarewaveGo, isn’t yet on the market, but the company touts several advantages of using the device.
Its website points out that the treatment is non-invasive and doesn’t require taking medication. It also says patients will be able to customize their pain treatment plan using the device.
