Pasadena, NL, medtech company Swiftsure Innovations, which in May raised a $2.3 million funding round led by St. John’s-based Pelorus Venture Capital, has announced its first board of directors.

The five-person board includes CEO Deanne McCarthy, as well as Pelorus Partner Sarah Murphy, former Newfoundland Finance Minister and Sandpiper Ventures Co-Founder Cathy Bennett, medical software entrepreneur Lise Halpern and Chair Harold Wodlinger.

Bennett’s Sandpiper, which invests specifically in female founders, was an investor in Swiftsure’s latest round. Halpern, meanwhile, is chief executive of Baltimore, Maryland-based startup InnoVision Medical Technologies. And Wodlinger is a biomedical engineer at the University of Toronto, as well as operating Wodlinger Consulting, which services the medical device industry.

“I am excited to welcome such an exceptional group of industry leaders to our Board of Directors," said McCarthy in a statement. “With their guidance, we are confident in our ability to grow an exceptional company that builds value for stakeholders as we improve the oral health of ventilated patients.”

Founded three years ago by intensive care unit nurse McCarthy, Swiftsure is developing medical devices that aim to improve oral care for critically ill patients on ventilator systems. She started work on the company after observing the problems created by endotracheal tubes, which are used in hospital ventilators and can cause patients to contract pneumonia.

Swiftsure’s flagship product is the SwishKit, which it describes as a method of washing and suctioning the oral cavity in mechanically ventilated patients. Medical teams can insert the device into a patient’s mouth, where it uses saline to rinse the person's oral cavity. It also suctions up water, secretions and organic materials that would otherwise remain in the mouth. McCarthy’s team recently completed clinical use validation trials at the Cleveland Clinic.