Magnetecs Corporation grew out of specific tragic incidence in Josh Shachar’s life. In 2000 Josh’s mother had a severe heart attack which required her to undergo a delicate stint procedure. Josh was able to watch the procedure and saw the difficult dance between the patient and the physician as he manually guided the catheter through her living body and into her beating heart, The operation was a success but Josh walked away knowing that there had to be a more effective way to accomplish the task.

“Our mission is to simply extend the ability of the physician to heal faster, with more accuracy, and with better outcomes for the patient.”
– Josh Shachar.

From this incident came Josh’s vision for the robotic Catheter Guidance Control and Imaging (CGCI) system. The CGCI uses an electromagnetic array in a unique configuration to intelligently guide a magnetically-tipped catheter to enable a physician to precisely and consistently control surgical tools in the highly dynamic environment of the human body. 

Magnetecs was formed in 2003 with the filing of the first patent for the technology titled “Apparatus and Method for Catheter Guidance Control and Imaging”. Over the next 12 years, Josh and his team were able to take the vision for the CGCI from rudimentary drawings and equations, to small scall benchtop design, 2/3 scale machines, and finally, a complete full-scale system that would provide the precision control and advanced imaging Josh had envisioned. In addition to the magnetic control array for the CGCI, the development of the platform also saw the creation of brand new proprietary guidance controls for the physician, advanced real-time 3D environment modeling software, and integrated dynamic system and patient biofeedback monitoring. The CGCI platform became a fully operating surgical suite. 

Magnetecs then began the process of testing and clinical trials to be able to meet the regulatory requirements for commercialization of the system both in the US and internationally. During this time Magnetecs constructed and deployed four fully operating CGCI suites. The first at their test facility in Los Angeles, the second at Cedars Sinai Hospital, the third at the Hospital Universitario La Paz in Madrid Spain, and the fourth at Yonsei University Hospital in Seoul, Korea. The resulting clinical trials of the system as it applied to its use for arterial ablation for patients with AFib were very successful and the company was able to achieve several of its needed regulatory certifications including CE Mark recognition, IEC Certification, UL licensing, and ISO-1345 compliance. In addition during the later part of the company’s history, Josh began development on intelligent catheter tooltips to be utilized with the CGCI. Chief amongst these was the MOSFET Catheter which used an innovative signal amplification system constructed into the tip of the catheter that would provide a significantly higher mapping resolution than any other catheter on the market. 

As the company’s CGCI platform neared the pre-commercialization phase, Josh moved the technology and all the IP into a new company called Neuro-Kinesis, which would continue the next phase of regulatory and clinical work to prepare the system for end-market use.