Restoring Independence at the End of Life: How SymPhysis Medical is Reimagining Care for Advanced Cancer Patients

SymPhysis Medical is an award-winning, Galway, Ireland-based medical device company focused on improving quality of life for patients with chronic and life-limiting conditions, particularly those receiving palliative care.

Founded in 2018, the company develops patient-centered technologies that prioritize independence, comfort, and ease of use—particularly with its first product—the releaze™ Drainage System. Healthcare Business Today recently sat down with SymPhysis Medical’s CEO and co-founder, Tim Jones, to learn more about him and his company’s vivid past, present, and future.

Jones’s path to medical technology was anything but direct. It wound through engineering classrooms, rental car offices, hospitality startups, and a bruising encounter with the global financial crisis before finally arriving at hospitals, patients’ homes, and the bedside realities of late-stage cancer. “I’m a business and engineering graduate,” Jones explained, “a program that sets you up for middle management in an engineering firm—but I felt at the time I didn’t want to go straight into that—so I needed to find my own way.”

Finding that way meant intentionally stepping outside his lane. Jones took on roles that allowed him to understand leadership from the ground up, including being a management trainee at a car rental branch that functioned as its own business unit. “It gave me the whole idea of what it is to run your own business,” he said. “Your branch is a standalone to a degree, so that gave me a good sense of what was needed to drive a team, your occupancy, efficiencies, and finances.”

That foundation eventually led him to entrepreneurship when Jones launched a product development company focused on the hospitality sector. This first company of his sold products across Europe and the United States, until the 2009-2010 financial downturn brought everything to a halt. “What we were seeing as a really solid business growing was crushed during that period,” Jones recalled, “and that’s when I really started to look at the world in a different way.”

From Products to Purpose

The collapse did more than end a business; it forced Jones to reevaluate what he wanted from his career. “What do I really want to do?” Jones asked himself at the time. “What is it that is going to make me passionate about a career for a very long time?”

While he enjoyed product development, Jones realized the industries he had been working in did not offer the deeper sense of purpose he was seeking. “For me, the product development was in an area that didn’t really have a big impact,” he said. “If the product was there, it’s great for efficiencies and hygiene, but how much of a difference are you actually making?”

The answer emerged at the intersection of geography, skill, and impact. Healthcare offered a different answer—especially medical technology. Based in Ireland, Jones was drawn to Galway, a region internationally recognized for MedTech. In 2010, he completed a medical device innovation degree in Dublin and soon after joined Medtronic. Jones soon discovered that healthcare offered what his previous ventures lacked. “Medtronic really gave me an opportunity to cut my teeth and it was there I realized that this sector was where I was going to be for the rest of my career,” he said. “I learned with the best—working with people who are subject matter experts across the whole breadth of what it takes to develop a medical device.”

In addition, working inside the world’s largest medical device company confirmed his direction—but also highlighted what Jones missed—entrepreneurship. “A few years into that, I realized I was a very small part of that company and I wanted to drive things in a similar way like when I was with my original business,” he added.

That constant ambition led him to BioInnovate, Ireland’s needs-led medical device and innovation program. There, the emphasis was not on ideas, but on observation—months spent inside clinical environments, watching care unfold before proposing solutions. “It’s about observing initially,” Jones explained. “We weren’t experts in that area, but we had fresh eyes watching the clinical teams go about their day-to-day basis.” This experience ultimately fostered the creation of SymPhysis Medical in 2018, which he cofounded with Chief Scientific Officer, Michelle Tierney.

“Us sharing values and being passionate in the same area confirmed that this is what I needed to foster the company,” Jones said. Eight years later, SymPhysis Medical remains firmly rooted in that original motivation. “My passion hasn’t wavered—it’s something that I’m looking forward to seeing grow in the coming years.”

A Complication That Steals Breath and Time

SymPhysis Medical is tackling one of the most common and debilitating complications of late-stage cancer—pleural effusion or the buildup of excess fluid around the lungs. Many of these patients develop fluid buildup that can reach two to three liters—where a healthy person has only teaspoons. The condition causes chronic breathlessness and chest pain.

The consequences are severe. “It puts this huge pressure on the lung and on the diaphragm,” Jones noted. In practical terms, that loss of function is devastating. “A person might be sitting in the living room and struggling just to get across to the kitchen,” he added.

Present systems allow fluid to be drained at home through implanted catheters, but patients rarely manage the process alone. “They require a public health nurse to visit their home for treatment, and they also need a loved one to support them with all of the paraphernalia involved,” Jones said. Where SymPhysis Medical has stepped in is that it has taken a needs-led approach. “We’ve listened to the voices of the patient, clinician, nurse, and everyone on that journey to ensure we’ve captured the areas which currently prove to be most challenging,” he explained.

For SymPhysis Medical, dependency became the core problem to solve. Jones and his team embedded themselves in interventional pulmonology units in both Galway University Hospital and the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Over nearly eight weeks they observed procedures, followed workflows, and again, spoke with clinicians, nurses, and patients.

 “The real issue wasn’t the procedure,” Jones said. “The procedure was okay—it’s only when you realize what the patient is going through at home—that’s when you see the gap.” The problem, they discovered, emerged after patients left the hospital. “That isn’t necessarily visible to the clinician—they have empathy and some understanding, but not a core knowledge of what patients need on a daily basis,” he added.

SymPhysis Medical’s solution centers on restoring autonomy. “We’ve developed a device that can be fully managed by the patient themselves without the need for a public health nurse or their loved one,” Jones explained. That independence matters profoundly in late-stage disease, during one of the most vulnerable periods of a patient’s life. “Extending that independence and quality of life can have such a significant and positive effect on patients and their families—that time is so precious!” he noted.

Jones later recalled one encounter that forever shaped the product.A patient preparing to go home explained to Jones that his daughters would help manage the drainage. Weeks later, the patient shared a video showing the process—and an unexpected difficulty. “That one interaction has led to a key feature in our device,” Jones said. “We may not have even known it was a problem until we saw it.”

Years later, the patient’s daughter reached out to the company again after her father’s passing. “She just wanted to say thank you for the engagement and for working on this device.” According to Jones, these moments crystallize why SymPhysis Medical exists. “Those interactions feed you with a continued passion that you’re driving the company with—it’s all about making a difference.”

Designing for Independence and Choice—Inside the releaze™ Drainage System

SymPhysis Medical’s flagship device, the releaze™ Drainage System, is designed to eliminate the barriers that currently prevent patients from self-drainage and give them something that existing devices do not—a choice. “Only around one to three percent of patients actually are able to do it themselves,” Jones noted. In fact, clinicians sometimes discourage self-drainage due to infection risks and the complexity of dressing changes with current devices.

So, SymPhysis Medical took a different approach. Through repeated usability studies, including three conducted at the U.K.’s National Innovation Centre for Ageing, the team tested whether participants with limited mobility, dexterity issues, or arthritis could use the device safely. “All of those participants were able to do it themselves, even those with limited dexterity,” Jones said. “And we also proved that they can do it with support as well, because some patients will still choose to have support.” Choice, Jones emphasized, is the key distinction. “That’s what our technology offers.”

The releaze™ Drainage System simplifies the entire experience—a single incision instead of two, an all-in-one dressing that stays on for a week, reduced pressure to minimize pain, and a removal process that takes seconds instead of up to forty-five minutes. “At the end of the day, it’s all about patient experience,” Jones added.

Even the device’s name reflects that intent. Originally conceived as “release”—it was changed after a clinician pointed out the difficulty of searching for such a common term. “What if you change the S to a Z?” a pulmonologist suggested. “Now the penny has dropped,” Jones explained, “releaze™ represents ‘real ease of use of the device’—and a future where patients have choices again.”

On the Brink of Market—and the Valley Ahead

SymPhysis Medical is rapidly approaching a critical transition point. After years of research, the company is now entering execution mode. It plans to submit its releaze™ Drainage System to the FDA later this year, with clearance expected early next year through the 510(k) pathway. “Everything that’s been done to this point has been a factfinding mission,” Jones clarified. “We are now at a predictable place and we have the exact information that we need to execute.”

The company also recently opened a U.S. office in Rhode Island, positioning the releaze™ Drainage System for an American-first launch as well as future manufacturing flexibility in its commercialization strategy. But progress brings new challenges—especially funding. “One of the toughest things with the development of medical devices now is funding,” Jones explained. “There is always this ‘valley of death’ where companies have built so much and then they’re just about to go commercial.”

SymPhysis Medical is currently raising capital to complete development and reach first-in-human patients. “I’d love anyone to see this as a potential investment opportunity,” Jones said. “MedTech is, of course, high-risk capital—but the reward is clear to see and I’d love to meet with anyone in the States who might want to go on this journey with us.” He added that with this type of investing, the results are often equally high-impact.

In the end, Jones still measures success by more than timelines and valuations. “When you’re building a business with a conscience,” he concluded, “that in itself is success as you go.” For patients who struggle simply to breathe, the promise of the releaze™ Drainage System is not just a new concept—but dignity, autonomy, and a little more time spent living life on their own terms—and for patients who may be experiencing their life’s journey ending, independence may be the most valuable innovation of all!

For more information about SymPhysis Medical and its revolutionary releaze™ Drainage System visit:  www.symphysismedical.com. For potential investment opportunities, please contact:  [email protected].