Medical Imaging Technology Venture

Med-tech startup Imricor Medical Systems Inc. has signed a deal with GE Healthcare to jointly develop a medical-imaging technology.

Imricor is developing products to give cardiac electrophysiologists a better view of the heart while performing an ablation procedure. Such procedures are used to destroy electric pathways in the heart that are causing atrial fibrillation, or an abnormal heart rhythm. While Imricor has already developed software and a catheter device, it needed a partner that could provide magnetic-resonance imaging (MRI) technology. That’s where GE Healthcare, which develops imaging systems like MRI machines, will come in. Waukesha, WI.-based GE Healthcare is a $17 billion division of General Electric Co., of Fairfield, CT.

Last year, Imricor received $920,000 in federal funding through the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to further develop its technology, which was spun out of Johns Hopkins University. Wedan is hoping the company can raise between $2 million and $3 million in capital this year to craft product prototypes. In the meantime, it’s applied for additional NIH funds through the federal stimulus package.