Minimally invasive image-guided therapy startup, SpinaFX Medical, has announced the appointment of Kieran Murphy (University Health Network [UHN], Toronto, Canada) as chief medical officer and member of the board of directors.
SpinaFX Medical CEO, Jeff Cambra, said: “[Kieran] Murphy has been a pioneer in the field of intradiscal ozone for the treatment of herniated lumbar discs since 2004. We look forward to drawing on his expertise and leadership in the field as we develop minimally-invasive, image guided solutions designed to address the unmet needs of patients, physicians and health systems.”
Murphy has extensive experience, which includes training at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, residency and fellowship at Albany Medical Center (New York, USA), and the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, USA). According to a company press release, while in his interventional neuroradiology fellowship at University of Geneva in 1996, he became one of the first physicians to perform vertebroplasty. From 1998 to 2008, he was director of interventional neuroradiology at Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, USA).
He is currently professor of interventional neuroradiology and researcher at the UHN. In addition to his clinical and investigatory work at UHN, Murphy is a prolific inventor who holds 72 patents, particularly in the areas of spine intervention, vertebroplasty and ozone technology. He is the author of 178 peer-reviewed articles (over 6,500 citations) and the co-author and editor of the textbook Image-Guided Interventions.
He is a fellow of the Society of Interventional Radiology and a senior member of the American Society of Spine Radiology and the American Society of Neuroradiology. He is an advisor to TVM Capital, Shore Capital and Generation Capital. He also works closely with the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in their global surgery training program
“I’m thrilled to be part of this exciting venture representing a new frontier in the treatment of herniated discs,” said Murphy. “I have worked hard to understand the mechanism of action of ozone on the nucleus pulposus, to build robust devices, and to study the patient benefit in well-structured clinical trials.
“I believe that SpinaFX will bring effective minimally invasive technologies to market that have the potential to relieve the suffering of millions of patients with symptomatic herniated lumbar discs around the world.”
SpinaFX executive chair, Igor Keselman, added: “[Kieran] Murphy is on the leading edge of research in intradiscal ozone for the treatment of herniated discs, and he is a tremendous asset to our team. We look forward to driving innovation in the industry together.”
