Halifax-based Audioptics Medical, whose device can see through eardrums to study the middle ear, has received a $492,000 loan from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency and a $240,000 grant from the National Research Council of Canada’s Industrial Research Assistance Program.

Audioptics has developed a system that can visualize and measure the structures of the middle ear through an intact eardrum. The device will help ear specialists diagnose illnesses in the middle ear and avoid exploratory surgery.

The new funding will go towards developing five prototypes of the Audioptics system, as well as help pay for the regulatory approval process and fund six new hires. 

“The funding received through the Regional Economic Growth through Innovation program will allow us to complete a planned run of prototype imaging systems and to put this made-in-Nova Scotia technology into the hands of our worldwide network of clinical collaborators,” said Audioptics CEO Dan MacDougall in a press release.

MacDougall, then a PhD student, co-founded the company four years ago with Rob Adamson, assistant professor in biomedical and electrical engineering at Dalhousie University.

In 2018, Audioptics was chosen as one of four companies in the inaugural cohort of Innovacorp’s MedTech Accelerate Program. And in April, it closed a $1.9 million funding round led by Innovacorp and the German medical device company Carl Zeiss Meditec AG.