Sisu Global Health

Sisu Global Health is a medical device company, founded in 2014 by Carolyn Yarina, Gillian Henker, and Katie Kirsch, that focuses on developing technologies for emerging markets. The founders met at the University of Michigan's engineering program and later combined their individual experiences in global health—Henker with a medical device design firm in Ghana and Yarina with a nonprofit in India—to establish Sisu Global Health. They identified a gap in the market where existing medical devices were often ill-suited for the constraints of low-resource communities. The company was initially based in Michigan before relocating to Baltimore in 2015 to join the Dreamit Health accelerator, leveraging the city's robust medical and global health ecosystem.

The company's flagship product is the Hemafuse, a patented, handheld, and fully mechanical surgical device that enables intraoperative autotransfusion. It allows clinicians to suction blood from a patient's internal hemorrhage, filter it to remove clots and particulates, and re-transfuse it back to the same patient, providing an alternative to donor blood. This is particularly critical in regions with significant shortages of donor blood. The Hemafuse system consists of a reusable pump and single-use accessories and is designed to be independent of electricity, making it suitable for a wide range of settings. It is applied in trauma, obstetric, general, orthopedic, and cardiothoracic surgeries.

Sisu Global Health's business model involves selling the Hemafuse system directly to hospitals, NGOs, and governments, primarily in emerging markets like Ghana and Kenya, where it has received regulatory approval. The company has secured over $3.1 million in funding through more than 15 rounds, with backing from venture capital firms like Revolution's Rise of the Rest Seed Fund and Camden Partners, as well as non-dilutive grants from organizations such as USAID and the Gates Foundation. Sisu also holds ISO 13485 certification, which has been instrumental in its global expansion.

Keywords: autotransfusion device, Hemafuse, emerging markets medtech, surgical blood salvage, mechanical medical device, global health technology, intraoperative hemorrhage, donor blood alternative, low-resource healthcare, surgical tool, medical device for Africa, obstetric hemorrhage solution, trauma surgery device, portable medical equipment, Gillian Henker, Carolyn Yarina, medical device innovation, healthcare access, blood transfusion technology, surgical safety