focalist
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Avail Built a Window Into the Operating Room. Mendaera Wants to Put a Hand Through It.
The company that made surgical expertise travel by screen ran out of money. Its technology found a second life inside a handheld robotics company that is trying to make a difficult first step in care easier to repeat.
Josh DeFonzo Is Shrinking the Surgical Robot
After two decades bringing medical technology to market, the Mendaera co-founder is betting that the next useful robot will fit in a clinician’s hand - and do one ordinary, difficult job well.
Mendaera, Inc.
Mendaera is a Silicon Valley healthcare technology company building Focalist, a fist-sized handheld robotic system that pairs real-time ultrasound imaging with robotic needle guidance and AI to make precise, needle-based procedures more accessible across specialties. Founded in 2020 by Josh DeFonzo and Jason Wilson, both alumni of Auris Health, and backed by Intuitive Surgical and Auris co-founder Dr. Fred Moll, the company aims to move robotics beyond the operating room and into the everyday procedures that make up the bulk of medicine.