Today we’re proud to announce that Avail Medsystems has closed a $100 million Series B financing, led by our friends at D1 Capital, with participation from new investor 8VC and existing backers Lux, Coatue and Sonder Capital. Lux led Avail’s Series A financing in 2018, and we’ve been privileged to work with Avail founder and CEO Daniel Hawkins, as well as board members Fred Moll (previously founder and CEO of both Auris Health and Intuitive Surgical) and industry veteran Jay Watkins.

Procedural telemedicine is a distinct, new discipline in the wider field of telemedicine and telehealth. Avail developed purpose-built hardware and software to meet unique requirements for surgeons to consult real-time with outside experts during procedures. The business model enables best quality care for patients, creates new step function collaboration efficiencies with outside experts, and helps de-risk access to non-elective surgery from local, regional, or global threats.

Seeing what others can’t

When a patient goes in for surgery, the operating room is often packed with medical experts. In addition to the surgeon, these experts can include clinical support, hospital leadership, medical students, an observing physician, the department chief — and to the great surprise of those outside of industry, the medical device sales rep. Squeezing all of these people into the operating room not only increases the risk of infection, but it is also a logistics challenge to make sure the right experts are in the room, at the right time.

Device reps are often left sitting in waiting rooms by the coffee machine or dashing from hospital to hospital for surgeon support and relationship maintenance. Physicians-in-training or specialized doctors travel great distances and work long hours in order to receive or share knowledge.

Different from doctor-patient telemedicine, procedural telemedicine uses technology to help physicians in an operating room connect with remote healthcare experts, medical device experts, or medical trainees, regardless of their location, to collaborate during procedures or for clinical education and training. Examples of uses include medical device industry remote support of surgeries, peer-to-peer physician proctoring during new technology introductions, and live case broadcasts during medical education meetings.

Avail is pioneering the surgery room of the future… today. COVID-19 was a force multiplier for the company’s growth and relevance. As scheduled surgeries came to a halt, and still aren’t being performed at full capacity, procedural telemedicine offered a solution for medical device support and physician-to-physician collaboration when access was restricted. Now, the Avail technology that was built specifically for the operating room is the go-to model for decreasing infection risk, eliminating the need for extensive travel, and creating a network of experts for universal access to healthcare knowledge.

We’re thrilled to be part of Avail’s story, using a modern technology platform to more evenly distribute higher quality healthcare, benefiting patients in the U.S. and globally.