Urinary disorders are extremely common, as many as 50% of men over the age of 50 suffer from them. Yet, the state-of-the-art tools to diagnose and monitor these problems involve techniques that are burdensome and invasive for the patients. An Israeli start-up is working to change this, offering an easy and discrete solution, which at the same time keeps the patients in constant contact with their physicians.
“We did not come from the medical field but we had a number of doctors approaching us while they were looking for better solutions for these issues,” Yosi Rozenberg, CEO and cofounder of P. Square Medical said. “We looked into the market and we realized that the only tools available required in-person visits to the hospital or to a specialist.”
After a period of research, P. Square was established with the goal of applying the development of telemedicine technologies to the field of urology.
Peepal – the system developed by the start-up – is comprised of a disposable sensor, a results recorder and an app, all of which allow the patient to keep himself tested and constantly monitored without multiple visits to physicians and clinics and the discomfort involved in the current methods of testing.
“In my view, the field of urology has been characterized by testing equipment that has remained the same for many years and has not been developed to meet the current advancements in technology,” Rozenberg said.
The system has been tested at the Rambam Healthcare Campus in Haifa and the clinical trial showed that the quality of the results it offered was comparable to those of in-person visits and tests.
“PeePal is an innovative, reliable and promising technology that enables multiple tests, independently and non-invasively, around the clock, in a comfortable and user-friendly home environment or in any other environment such as work, vacation and so on,” said Prof. Ilan Gruenwald, director of the Urology Unit at Rambam and scientific medical advisor of P. Square.
In June, the company signed an agreement with US healthcare company Premier Inc. to test the system at the department of urology of Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, in Philadelphia.
The goal is to obtain the approval of the Food and Drug Administration by the beginning of next year.