Our Story - CoapTech

a medical device company developing the PUMA System™ platform in Baltimore, MD

CoapTech is bringing a series of breakthrough medical devices to worldwide markets, leveraging a patented, disruptive technology called the PUMA Platform which is owned and developed by the company. CoapTech’s PUMA devices will reduce health care costs, and improve safety, quality, patient experience, and access to services around the globe.     

Invented by Dr. Steven Tropello, the PUMA System™ enables procedures using point-of-care ultrasound in hollow organs. The first application of this technology is called the PUMA-G device, which is a procedural kit for the insertion of gastrostomy tubes using just ultrasound. This procedure is now known as Percutaneous Ultrasound Gastrostomy (PUG), a point-of-care (as opposed to operating room) procedure for inserting gastrostomy tubes which can be safely performed by ultrasound-trained providers.  It employs readily available medical components and methods such as any ultrasound, feeding tubes, guidewires and dilators.                                    

Current procedures to insert gastrostomy tubes require expensive, inpatient hospital equipment and have high complication rates between 4% and 20%. The need for highly trained specialists, operating room time, and use of specialized equipment including endoscopes, fluoroscopes and Computed Tomography (CT) scanners, translates into higher consultation costs, greater patient wait times, and additional hospital admission costs. On the in-patient side of the hospital, gastrostomy tube placement can be the bottle-neck for stepping down a patient from an ICU setting. Moving this mid-level procedure from specialists in a suite to ultrasound-savvy physicians at the point of care eliminates the bottle-neck.

Given the aging population both in the United States and Asia (China, India), and the growing prevalence of chronic diseases, the number of gastrostomy tube insertions will continue to rise. By creating a safe procedure that uses less costly clinical inputs, our disruptive point-of-care approach is directly comparable to the model by which several other common medical procedures (e.g. central line insertion, percutaneous tracheostomy, etc.) have successfully won markets.

CoapTech’s PUMA-G System for PUG has received FDA clearance via the standard 510(k) pathway.

As CoapTech's first product is established in the marketplace for use in the PUG procedure, additional applications of the device to other procedure markets are being pursued by CoapTech to leverage the core technology, expand the company, and improve care quality, cost, safety, and access to patients around the world.