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July 2015
| Business World
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tals, healthcare professionals and patients
with a better way to manage pain, while de-
livering multiple benefits to users. Using this
device saves precious nursing time and leads
to better pain control, better pain satisfac-
tion, and better pain outcomes.
Met by red tape, there were many hurdles for
Avancen to overcome. After securing an NIH
Grant, the teamhad to develop a prototype in
order to fulfill the terms of the grant.
“Through some connections, we had software
and hardware engineers design and build a
basic prototype to use during initial clinical
trials,” Buffington said. “We took the data we
gathered from the trials and produced - af-
ter much iteration – a first production of the
original MOD device, which you hooked to
a computer with a USB and that’s how they
were programmed.”
Avancen continued to acquire customers and
feedback on how to improve or change the
device by using the same prototype for a few
years. Soon after, the company filed patents
on the device, receiving their Federal Drug
Administration (FDA) clearance. A turning
point in the product life cycle, Buffington,
Conley and the company engineers soon re-
alized a wi-fi MOD was a necessity.
“One of the great features of the MOD® de-
vice is that it collects pain information from
Sharon Conley, CMO