RoddyMedical: Creating a new standard of care

Registered nurse Lindsey Roddy witnessed the dangers of tangled medical tubing when she nearly lost a patient after a medical line carrying life support medications caught and was pulled out from the patient’s body. Studies indicate that 19 million medical lines are inadvertently pulled from patients each year, increasing treatment costs, distress to patients, serious bleeding, and sometimes even death.

Determined to solve this problem, Roddy founded RoddyMedical in 2018 with a mission to create a device to ensure medical lines safely remain in place. She participated in Ideadvance, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Student Startup Challenge and the Milwaukee I-Corps Program to help develop the product idea and create a solid foundation for her business.

The Wauwatosa-based company’s flagship product, SecureMove-TLC, hit the market last year. The wearable, single-use, class I medical device can withstand 80+ pounds of pull force and was registered with the FDA in October 2021.

The company’s rapid ascent from idea to product is the result of the tireless efforts of the RoddyMedical team.

Co-founder and Director of Engineering, Kyle Jansson, joined the team while SecureMove-TLC was being developed. Jansson, the Director of UWM’s Prototyping Center, was introduced to RoddyMedical in 2017 when Roddy came to the center to develop a prototype of the product she envisioned.

“She told me the budget… and asked, ‘how much development will that get me?’ and I wanted to say, ‘Lindsey let’s have a seat because I’m about to crush your dreams.’ I remember the look on her face when I told her what it was going to take to launch a product that’s never been done before. I just saw the look on her face, like every other entrepreneur, when I mention the amount of time, effort, and money that it takes to launch something like this,” Jansson said.

Roddy, undeterred, pressed forward with the limited budget.

“We created 3D prototypes. They worked. They were functional. But there was no way those were going to get on a patient… I knew we needed to get to the next phase, and we needed the right skill set to do so… I was emotionally invested after witnessing firsthand and seeing the things that clinicians had to get their patients to do and having the inability to do that bugged me… It was pretty easy to get involved and to want to be a part of this outside of my full time-job,” he said.

The mechanical engineer joined the team in 2019 and started spending nights and weekends perfecting Roddy’s vision. It took 37 iterations to perfect the prototype before it was ready for manufacturing.

Chief Operating Officer Pat Deno joined the company in 2020. The serial entrepreneur has been developing Class I and II medical devices for the past 18 years.

“I have a 30-year background in marketing, manufacturing, and business development. It was the missing element from Lindsey and Kyle’s background,” Deno said.

The company has successfully raised $1.7 million to date. In 2022, RoddyMedical received a grant from UWM Research Foundation and then completed an early seed funding round with investors Winnow Fund, Winnebago Seed Fund, BrightStar Wisconsin Fund, MVP, Nurse Capital, and Jennifer Abele.

“The persistence to never give up on something that is hard is important. I think that’s a quality all three of us have. We knew it was hard. We knew it was going to take a lot of time and that didn’t faze us. We said, ‘okay, it’s going to take years. Let’s go. Let’s get started,’” Jansson said.

With multiple patents issued and several pending approvals, the company is focused on future growth. To gain traction in the marketplace, Roddy and Deno are introducing the SecureMove-TLC at conferences that target nursing leadership.

“We’ve seen such a tremendous response when we go to these shows,” Deno said. “We constantly hear ‘I can’t believe no one thought of this before. This would have saved my patient. This would have saved me time.’ It just gives us goosebumps! We’re looking to set a standard of care with this product for patient safety and mobility. We call it the new standard in medical line securement.”

To learn more about this company on the rise, connect with RoddyMedical here.