Robert (Bob) Wilson still recalls being told that a lead apron would be sufficient to protect him from radiation exposure during his early days practicing as an interventional cardiologist. But after 30 years of research data showed that secondary radiation exposure during fluoroscopy procedures is significantly higher than previously estimated, Wilson sought to develop a better solution to protect health care workers.
In 2014, Wilson co-founded Arden Hills, MN-based Egg Medical with Uma Valeti, a fellow interventional cardiologist and now company board member, and chief technology officer John Gainor to develop a system that would significantly reduce scatter radiation exposure without disrupting the workflow in the catheterization lab, where these types of procedures are typically done.
“Everybody that works in these X-ray-guided procedure rooms is in the room with the patient, and a lot of that X-ray that comes out of the X-ray machine actually gets scattered into the room from the patient,” Wilson, who has been practicing interventional cardiology at the University of Minnesota since 1986, told Medtech Insight during an interview at the LSI USA 2025 conference. “Everything in that room gets radiated every day for 30, 40 years sometimes, and it takes some time to [see] what the impact of that is.”
Traditional lead personal protective equipment and radiation shields are mandatory to protect staff members during interventional procedures. But lead aprons, thyroid shields and lead glasses are only partially effective, leaving body parts such as arms, hands and heads unprotected, he said.
Key Takeaways
- Long-term exposure to scatter radiation during fluoroscopy procedures poses significant health risks—including increased risks of cancer, cataracts, and heart disease—which traditional protective gear like lead aprons only partially mitigate.
- Egg Medical’s EggNest system integrates directly into procedure tables, providing up to 99% protection from scatter radiation for all staff without disrupting workflow.
- With new funding and a new distribution partnership with Biotronik, Egg Medical is aiming to scale internationally and differentiate itself from competitors by offering whole-room protection and ease of use.
Throughout a typical career in the cath lab, interventional cardiologists are exposed to an estimated 50 mSv-200 mSv of ionizing radiation, which equates to 2,500 to 10,000 chest X-rays, according to Egg Medical. The ionizing activity can alter molecules within the cells of the body. This triples the risk for cancers including skin carcinoma, thyroid and brain cancer, increases cataract risk six-fold, and doubles the risk of heart disease, Egg Medical said.
Wilson said that lead aprons, which are worn by clinicians as the primary protective system against scatter radiation, offer about a 97% protection level. But their 15-20-pound-weight exposes clinicians to orthopedic issues, in particular, neck and back pain.
“About 60% of physicians in this line of work have orthopedic problems that are related to lead-apron wearing and it shortens, obviously, the career of many people who retire early, or they just get out of the cath lab or radiology lab earlier than they should,” he said.
EggNest Protection Systems
The EggNest radiation protection systems, which are carbon fiber sled base shields that are integrated into the procedure tables, offer 360-degree radiation shielding. Egg Medical offers three systems – EggNest XR and EggNest Protect, which offer up to 97% overall radiation exposure, and EggNest Complete, which offers up to 99% protection.
EggNest XR was the first-generation system, reaching the market in 2019. The second-generation and flagship product, EggNest Complete, launched in 2024, features a thinner platform, Jamboard-style flip shields and retractable flex shielding that allows for full C-arm rotations, which makes it ideal for interventional cardiology procedures. It has a ceiling-mounted hanging shield that requires one disposable drape. The EggNest Protect allows for more X-ray gantry movement or C-arm rotation, making it ideal for vascular surgery procedures, Wilson explained.
When the company set out to develop the first prototypes, Wilson said, the goal was three-fold: To develop a system that would reduce scatter radiation by at last 90%; protect the anesthesiologist, technicians and nurses as well as the interventional cardiologist; and maintain the procedure room workflow.
The EggNest system is designed to be “part of the furniture.” Its light carbon fiber shell replaces the mattress on the X-ray table, then flips up and down and moves passively with the system, he said. Wilson noted that different states in the US have different regulations when it comes to scatter radiation protection. Some states require a .25mm lead-apron which lets through 18% of scatter radiation, while others require .5mm, he said.
Wilson estimates the global market size for radiation protection systems is about $5.9bn. There are about 35,000 X-ray guided procedure rooms globally. The “As Low as Reasonably Achievable” ALARA standard guides radiation safety measures at the federal level and requires businesses to minimize radiation exposure. In 2022, the company secured a $13m investment in a financing round led by TVM Capital Life Science. The venture capital firm also recently participated in a series C round that brought in $14.3m.
Luc Marengère, managing partner at TVM Capital Life Science, considers EggNest an “unusual product” because it doesn’t generate revenues or reduce costs for the buyer.
“It’s all about safety and frankly [it is] ethical,” he told Medtech Insight at LSI. “There’s an ethical motivation now that it is very clear that scatter radiation is a very, very, very, real and nasty problem in interventional cardiology. It’s the same in electrophysiology, especially with the advent of [pulsed-field ablation] as an energy source to do ablations for atrial fibrillations and tachycardias and these sorts of things. You use more imaging.”
“X-ray imaging has exploded, because everybody wants a minimally invasive surgery [and] so has the radiation exposure, and that’s why I say it’s the biggest market you never heard of,” he said.
In February, Egg Medical announced a partnership with Biotronik to sell EggNest products to health systems in the US.
“[Biotronik] identifies accounts, they facilitate the purchase through their other devices, and we think this is really going to propel us, particularly in the electrophysiology segment,” Wilson said, adding that Egg Medical is looking at other partnerships in other segments. Egg Medical has a sales staff of about 16 people in the US and demos scheduled out three months from now, he said. The company has installed 180 units so far, with Christ Hospital in Cincinnati and Edward Elmhurst in the Chicago area being among their biggest customers.
In Europe and India, the company uses distributors.
One of Wilson’s company goals for 2025 is to increase sales outside of the US from the current 10% to at least 40%. The company is also developing add-on products for workflow and safety. Last year, the company launched a disposable, sterile shielding drape called ScatterPro for use around any access site, which, as Wilson put it, has already “exceeded expectations on the marketplace.”
“We hired an international VP who will be totally focused on international. Second, we need to identify quality distributors who have capital experience and are able to really introduce products into a market,” he said about the OUS marketing strategy.
Competitive Landscape
In recent years, several innovators have broken into the scatter radiation protection space with different technologies.
Wilson considers Rampart IC Egg Medical’s closest competitor. The Birmingham, AL-based company markets the Rampart Defender, described on its website as a fully adjustable, portable radiation shielding system that uses lead-equivalent acrylic panels and soft shielding to protect the physician and team members.
Another company, TIDI Products, developed Zero-Gravity, a suspended radiation protection system designed to increase the level of radiation protection while eliminating the weight burden lead vests placed on the interventional cardiologist.
French company Lemer Pax developed the CathPax EP system, a radiation protection cabin that is mobile and height-adjustable.
The introduction of robotic systems to perform robotically assisted percutaneous interventions, such as the Corpath 200 system by Corindus Vascular Robotics and Hansen by Hansen Medical, offer cardiovascular interventionalists another alternative to perform coronary and peripheral interventions while lowering the occupational hazards of wearing heavy lead aprons and being in close proximity to X-ray radiation sources.
Wilson believes that EggNest solutions have a competitive edge by being easy to use without adding a lot of extra time to the workflow.
“It’s the only product on the market that provides scatter radiation [protection] for everyone in the room,” Marengère said, adding, “That’s the element of differentiation to their competitors.”