CEO of a medical device spinoff from MUSC plans to take his catheter far and wide By Mary Katherine Wildeman [email protected] Jul 12, 2021 Cephus Simmons, a Ph.D. and radiology assistant at the Medical University of South Carolina, developed an idea for a different kind of catheter and founded SealCath in 2013. Aneris Photography/Provided Aneris Photography/Provided

During a procedure with a young patient, Cephus Simmons noticed something wasn’t working as well as it could. Part of the child’s small intestine had slid into the large intestine, causing an obstruction that can be life threatening for small children. But the catheter used to keep the bladder flowing wasn’t staying firmly in place. “It became frustrating to me, and it was something that medically I knew wasn’t correct, and something that needed to be fixed,” said Simmons, a Ph.D. and radiology assistant at the Medical University of South Carolina. The catheter the MUSC team was using, called...

The company quickly began to take off in 2018. Simmons was awarded a research grant that year from the National Institutes of Health. The S.C. Research Authority, a tech accelerator program that receives state funding, also enrolled SealCath in its SC Launch program for startups in 2018. The program gives companies mentorship and capital in order to grow. BUSINESS Is more telecommuting here to stay in SC? It might be hard to say. By Mary Katherine Wildeman [email protected] SealCath went to market in the summer of 2019. Then, Simmons secured a patent in Canada in 2020. When COVID-19...

Electric-bus maker that got traction and help in SC is stock market bound By John McDermott [email protected] Simmons didn’t imagine becoming the CEO of a startup company when he decided to go into medicine. “Innovation does the same thing as what I’ve been doing my whole career, which is helping patients,” he said. “If you find the right product that’s going to improve health care, then innovation is actually just as good or better than what I’ve been doing the whole time as far as taking care of my patients.” Simmons plans to retire from MUSC, which he now counts among his customers,...