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Dr. Margaret Kalmeta, Founder and CEO of Rapid Nexus, is revolutionizing wound care after having her start in dental and oral surgery.

How it all started

While working with the elderly in a nursing home, she came across a common problem among patients: mouth infections that were sometimes fatal. As an innovator, she did her research and eventually was able to develop a technology that regrows bone and tissue to help nursing home patients with infections.

She then met a diabetic man who lost all of his limbs to amputation.

“I met a diabetic patient who just had all his limbs amputated due to wounds that would not heal. I was in utter disbelief that a patient with what seemed like simple wounds could end up having both legs and arms amputated.”

In her research, she discovered a startling global statistic: a leg is amputated every 20 seconds and 85% of these amputations are the result of a diabetic foot ulcer.

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“Remembering the patient and his agony and seeing these numbers, I was convinced that my technology would transfer and ethically knew I had to leverage my education, training and resources to do something… to make a difference.”

Nanotechnology based solutions

Dr. Kalmeta then embarked on an international self-funded venture in an attempt to transfer the technology she developed for mouth infections to chronic wound treatment.

After spending two and a half years doing further research and testing, she completed testing prototypes of advanced wound medical devices, active substrates, and the associated protocols.

Dr. Kalmeta was able to develop medical devices and substrates to work together and treat the wounds. The treatment works by first reducing infection, secondly by addressing and treating the surrounding tissue, the peri-wound, in order to reestablish healthy tissue there. Next, the Rapid Nexus products are used to treat and close the wound.

In the process of transferring her technology to the chronic wound space, she was able to help patients with chronic wounds heal and save many limbs from an amputation.

Our Company

Rapid Nexus developed innovative technology able to heal open wounds by rapidly reducing infection and stimulating rapid healing.

There is currently nothing like Rapid Nexus in the market. The company uses cutting-edge medical technology to deliver a complete and durable wound healing system that enables users to rapidly heal acute and chronic diabetic wounds.

Dr. Kalmeta and the entire Rapid Nexus team are now working hard to help more people by bringing the product to market.

Why our work matters

The Rapid Nexus team understands how chronic wounds impact the quality of life and health of the patients and their families.

In addition to physical pain, the wounds run deep, causing anxiety, loss of function and mobility, shame and social isolation, as well as depression at times.

Prolonged untreated wounds can lead to heavy financial burden, long-term hospitalization, amputation and eventually, even death. Based on a staggering statistic, a leg is amputated every 20 seconds and 85% of these amputations are the result of a diabetic foot ulcer. 70% of patients die after five years of the first amputation.

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Mission

“Our mission is to give doctors the advanced tools they need in order to treat infection, close non-healing wounds and prevent amputations, which are especially prevalent in the disproportionately affected populations.”

Help amid a pandemic
The spread of Covid-19 has caused major disruption in health care services, limiting wound patients’ access to hospital treatment and doctors. Patients with wounds require urgent attention and any delay in treatment can result in heavy consequences. Rapid Nexus addresses this very problem with a telemedicine wound healing system that allows patients to treat themselves with kits they can use at home.

Meet the Team

Dr. Margaret Kalmeta
Founder & Chief Executive Officer

Dr. Margaret Kalmeta is a doctor of dental surgery with extensive training in oral surgery. Building and successfully exiting several startup practices, she went on to develop and patent novel tissue and bone growth technologies. Learning that the daily amputations measured in the hundreds because of poor technologies, Dr. Kalmeta transferred her technology to the wound care industry to address this critical unmet patient need.

Christine Pasciak
Chief Operations Officer

Christine Pasciak holds the title of COO at Rapid Nexus, Inc. She has managed, organized and coordinated components of several successful businesses since 1998 and has been exceptional in the area of communication and strategy. Christine has, in total, over 40 years of experience in the health science field, from having a clinical background to being a management executive. As Rapid Nexus COO, Christine has completed the manufacturing and scaling of our technology.

David Kowalski
Board Member

David Kowalski has over twenty years of national CEO experience at Kindred, Transitional Care Partners, NCIF Foundation Center as well as Directorial Experience at Pacific Rim Bank, spurring market share growth of healthcare companies. He has propelled business growth and managed national growth for leading healthcare companies, nursing home ventures, foundations and banks. David has BS and MS degrees from Ohio University in Healthcare and Business.

John Wetherell, PhD, JD
Board Member

Serves on the Board of Directors of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Led Pillsbury’s team representing the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation in a record-setting $3.3 billion sale of drug rights to Royalty Pharma following an intensive IP due diligence effort. Achieved a favorable arbitration panel ruling for University of Kansas following years of litigation in a case involving inventorship credit on National Institute of Health-owned patents covering cancer drug formulations. Represented Northwestern University in the partial sale of its worldwide royalty interest in Lyrica for $700 million.