September 9, 2020 – Oncomfort, a Belgium-based inventor of ‘Digital Sedation’ – a method for relieving patients’ pain and anxiety without medication, has today announced the completion of a EUR €10 million Series A funding round. Funding was co-led by Debiopharm and Crédit Mutuel Innovation, with continued support from existing investors including Wallonia Innovation and Growth. Both new investors will join Oncomfort’s newly composed Board of Directors.
Oncomfort stated that it plans to use its newly raised EUR €10 million investment to develop its Digital Sedation solution and accelerate its international expansion in the European and American markets.
“Our investment in Oncomfort’s digital sedation solution is based on the strong potential of digital therapeutics as well as the specific intellectual property and scientific evidence that Oncomfort has built over recent years,” said Karine Lignel, CEO of Crédit Mutuel Innovation.
Oncomfort’s Digital Sedation solution offers relief for patients’ pain and anxiety through treatment with sessions of therapeutic Virtual Reality. The company stated that since the launch its ‘Sedakit’ for Digital Sedation in Benelux and France in June 2019, over 30,000 patients have been treated and have had their pain and anxiety relieved before, during, and after interventions in many clinical fields such as anesthesia, oncology, interventional radiology and cardiology, as well as pediatrics.
The Sedakit provides an all-in-one portable solution to deliver Digital Sedation to both adults and children in a range of medical interventions, whilst still respecting the strict hygiene requirements of a medical environment, according to the company. Oncomfort states that its Sedakit solution is fit for a variety of medical procedures ranging from short punctures, diagnostic and recurring interventions to deep sedation during surgery. The solution comes with a library of modules in 12 languages for patients to select. The therapies used during a session can vary depending on the indication and the patient.
The modules are evidence-based, standardised hypnotherapy sessions combined with integrative therapeutic approaches, powered through Virtual Reality. They combine specially designed 3D virtual sessions with hypnotherapeutic scripts and immersive sounds, dissociating patients from their pain and anxiety.
“We are at a tipping point in our digital therapy,” said Mario Huyghe, CEO of Oncomfort. “The medical community has discovered the advantages and potential of Digital Sedation to relieve pain and anxiety without medication. Virtual reality acts as an enabler for this digital therapy. Yet, Oncomfort’s true potential comes from the scientific evidence of its digital sedation and the multidisciplinary co-creation with the expertise of anesthesiologists, neurologists, psychologists, and hypnotherapists. With this Series A funding, we will accelerate our product development with a broader engineering team and invest in the international expansion of Oncomfort.”
Thierry Mauvernay, President of Debiopharm, commented: “We are delighted to find a scientifically validated digital tool to support the overall journey of patients, which frequently includes various levels of pain, anxiety, and fear. The fact that advanced virtual reality in combination with hypnotherapy and integrative therapeutic techniques can be used to effectively sedate patients is truly impressive and offers an interesting option for patients to find physical and emotional relief.”
For more information about Oncomfort and its virtual reality therapeutic solutions, please visit the company’s website.
Image credit: Oncomfort
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Sam is the Founder and Managing Editor of Auganix. With a background in research and report writing, he has been covering XR industry news for the past seven years.