Innovation isn’t a new idea for Robert A. Rabiner – he’s a serial entrepreneur who has led medical device companies and held executive positions at several others, addressing major problems such as stroke and cardiovascular disease.
But his most recent work, at his newest company, IlluminOss Medical Inc., began a little closer to home.
His 80-year-old aunt had hip surgery, and doctors told her she would have a 10-week recovery period, during which she wouldn’t be able to walk. Something didn’t seem right about that, Rabiner said. She wasn’t an athlete, so why would she need to go without using her hip for so long to ensure it healed correctly?
“Isn’t there a means that you can support the bone, stabilize the bone and let her regain mobility without 10 weeks worth of recuperation?” he wondered. He set out to develop a new system that would work to heal the bones in a minimally invasive way.
The IlluminOss Orthopedic System, which Rabiner is currently testing in his Middletown office, works to stabilize bone factures from the inside out, forgoing traditional methods of using external pins, plates and screws to fix broken bones. The system works by creating a bone-stabilization pin inside the bone with a small-diameter, high-pressure balloon.
The balloon is filled with polymer glue that is activated by light, hardening inside the bone and allowing the bone to heal in a proper orientation.
The system has the potential to be utilized in a wide array of bone repair applications, starting with repair of fingers, wrists, collar bones, ribs, feet and ankles, Rabiner said. Eventually, it should be able to repair the long bones of the legs and arms.
The goal is to create a system that improves patient outcomes, reduces scarring, and allows patients to get back to work and other normal activities faster with less downtime after surgery to repair broken bones.
Rabiner’s interest in the glue actually came from a hobby of his – being a fly fisherman. Walking through a medical device trade show, he saw different glues being used in an array of medical applications. He began thinking about how the glue could be used in fly fishing because the epoxies used in fly fishing are too messy.
But after his aunt’s hip problems, he began thinking about the possibility of inserting the glue into the bones to help bones heal. But because glue is an unpredictable substance once it is inserted into the body, he had to develop a way to keep it from running into undesired areas.
Glue is too thin and also, once mixed, begins to harden and loses its ability to be reshaped or relocated as necessary. Eventually, the balloon was chosen as the best option to put the glue into the human body.
Researching a way to make his idea feasible, he brought on an expert, Dr. Arnold-Peter Weiss, a hand surgeon at Rhode Island Hospital and professor of orthopedics at Brown University’s Warren Alpert Medical School.
Meeting with Dr. Weiss validated the concept and confirmed the need for such an innovative solution to the problem of fixing broken bones. In fact, Weiss was so intrigued by the concept that he joined IlluminOss and now serves on its board of directors.
Learning that his idea was feasible, Rabiner met with several venture capital firms to discuss how to bring the system into operating rooms. He eventually received funding from Foundation Medical Partners.
“We got people … to see what we were doing, and they said, ‘This makes a lot of sense, keep on moving,’ ” Rabiner said.
With the receipt of venture capital funding, the prototype of the IlluminOss system is starting to take shape. Still in the research phase, Rabiner said that he is currently conducting tests on human bones. He has completed some patent work and is nearly ready to start hiring employees.
“We’re not ready for prime time yet,” he said. “But we’re fixing a lot of bones in the office, though.”
Seeing the potential for growth in his idea, Rabiner intends to further integrate himself into the Rhode Island business and entrepreneurial environments. He is looking to develop collaborative relationships with existing companies, hospitals and schools throughout the state. Aside from Weiss, he already has taken a step in that direction by using students from Rhode Island School of Design this past summer as interns.
The idea of success isn’t anything new for Rabiner, who has 19 patents and 52 more applications pending.
Before striking out on his own, he held executive positions at companies including Galileo Corp., American Cynamid and Surgeon’s Choice. While at the companies, he led successful product and division launches and integrated new technologies into the companies.
In 1998, he founded OmniSonics Medical Technologies, a medical device company that focused on vascular disease. It had 75 employees and raised nearly $74 in the venture capital realm.
After leaving the company, he founded Selva Medical, a medical device company located in Tiverton that the Slater Technology Fund had invested in. In October 2006, he sold the company to WL Gore & Associates.
He was then faced with a difficult choice – should he take time off to enjoy his rewards, or keep on moving?
“The thought was, do I retire, or as my wife suggested, buy a little sports car and spend my time trying to figure out how to rebuild it?” he said. “I thought about that for about a week and then said, ‘No, I’m going to spend my time trying to do another project.’ ”
And thus, IlluminOss was born. •
