Accessibility Screen-Reader Guide, Feedback, and Issue Reporting
This site is intended for healthcare professionals
Patient Site

News

<- Back

Delphinus Appoints Two New Board Members

December 21, 2015

Selections Follow Unprecented Series C Round

Delphinus Medical Technologies, Inc., the leader in advanced breast ultrasound technology, announced today that it has added two new senior-level advisors to its Board of Directors. With more than 35 years of combined experience with emerging healthcare innovators, John Neis and Michael Fulton, M.D., will help guide the company as it develops commercialization plans for SoftVue™, Delphinus’ breakthrough whole breast ultrasound system that allows physicians to image the entire breast for diagnostic imaging purposes.

The appointments cap off Delphinus’ Series C venture round, which garnered more than $39 million. This unprecedented venture capital funding is the single largest amount ever raised for a healthcare imaging company in the Midwest, as well as the largest for a medical device company in Michigan.

“We are extremely fortunate to be able to add John and Mike to our already-prestigious board,” said Mark J. Forchette, president and CEO of Delphinus. “Their experiences guiding medical device companies to success will be invaluable as we introduce SoftVue™.”

Neis is a managing director at Venture Investors LLC, which focuses on opportunities emerging from leading research universities in the Midwest. He currently serves on the boards of several other healthcare companies, and he is a member of the board of the Wisconsin Technology Council, the science and technology advisor to the state’s governor and legislature. He also serves on the Dean’s Advisory Board and the Weinert Applied Ventures Program Advisory Board in the School of Business and chairs the Tandem Press Advisory Board in the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Neis, a chartered financial analyst, received a Bachelor of Science degree in finance from the University of Utah, and a Master of Science degree in marketing and finance from the University of Wisconsin – Madison.

“I am very pleased to join the Delphinus board to work together to bring this life saving technology to the market,” Neis said. “Delphinus and its SoftVue™ technology address a significant need in the breast cancer diagnostic continuum, especially for women who have dense breast tissue.”

Fulton, a managing director at Hopen Life Science Ventures, has spent his entire career in the life sciences space, including 18 years as a successful investor and entrepreneur. Prior to joining Hopen, he served in the roles of founder, director, and CEO at a number of healthcare companies, including Lanx, Inc., (purchased by Biomet), and ProNerve, LLC (purchased by a private equity firm). Fulton is an inventor of multiple medical devices, and holds more than 50 U.S. and international patents. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Northwestern University, his medical degree from Cornell University Medical College, and completed two years of neurosurgery
residency at the Cleveland Clinic.

“SoftVue™ represents a breakthrough technology designed to provide tissue characterization based on the capture of transmission signals only possible due to its unparalleled ring transducer design,” Fulton added. “We anticipate this will both increase breast cancer detection and reduce false positives, particularly for women with dense breasts. I am pleased to join this talented team.”

As an ultrasound technology, SoftVue™ offers the potential to not only assist physicians in finding more cancers, but also to reduce the false positive rates that have troubled other breast imaging techniques. SoftVue™’s unparalleled, sophisticated design incorporates a circular ultrasound transducer, unique to medical imaging, presenting cross-sectional ultrasound slices through the entire volume of breast tissue. The multi-dimensional imaging captures not only reflected echoes in a 360-degree array, but also signals passing through the breast, depicting tissue characterization.

About Delphinus Medical Technologies, Inc.
Headquartered in Plymouth, Mich. with a satellite office in Sunnyvale, Calif., Delphinus Medical Technologies, Inc. is a pioneering medical imaging company that has developed SoftVue™, the first circular array transducer technology that has received sequential U.S. Food and Drug Administration clearances. The patented technology is a whole breast ultrasound imaging device that delivers no radiation, requires no compression, and images the entire breast with a single scan. SoftVue™ is indicated for use as a B-mode ultrasonic imaging system and is not intended to be used as a replacement for screening mammography. Delphinus was founded as a spin out of the Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit and is capitalized through principal investments by Arboretum Ventures, Ann Arbor, Mich., Beringea, Farmington Hills, Mich., North Coast Technology Investors, Ann Arbor, Mich., Venture Investors, Madison, Wis., Hopen Life Science Ventures, Grand Rapids, Mich., and Waycross Ventures, Menlo Park, Calif. For more information, visit www.delphinusmt.com.

About Venture Investors
Venture Investors was founded in 1982 and is a leading seed and early stage venture capital firm in the Midwest. It is principally focused on healthcare and technology opportunities emerging from the ecosystems around leading Midwestern research universities, with offices in Madison, Wisconsin and Ann Arbor, Michigan near two of the top five research universities in the nation. The partners at Venture Investors have worked together for over two decades, bringing a long history of investment success, a global network of co-investors and patient capital to its portfolio companies. The firm is currently investing out of its fifth fund and has over $200 million under management. For more information, please visit www.ventureinvestors.com.

About Hopen Life Science Ventures
Hopen Life Science Ventures is a Midwest-based venture capital firm that invests in exceptional early- to mid-stage life science opportunities. With offices in Michigan and Ohio, the Firm is very active in the Midwest, a geographic region steeped in life science innovation, but traditionally underserved with capital. The Hopen team includes investment professionals with extensive prior experience launching and ramping private and public life science companies. Hopen is actively making new investments via Hopen Life Science Fund II. For additional information on Hopen Life Science Ventures, visit www.hopenls.com.

Contact
Diana Soltez
Nobles Global Communications
Email: diana@noblesgc.com
Office: 818-618-5634

We use cookies to enhance user experience, analyze performance and traffic on our website, and personalize content. We also share information about your use of our website with our advertising and analytics partners. For more information on our use of cookies and information about your use of our site, please see our Privacy Policy.