Oncomfort

Oncomfort was a Belgian-based developer of a digital sedation device for managing patient pain and anxiety before, during, and after medical procedures. Founded in 2017 by Diane Jooris, Mario Huyghe, and Julien Tesse, the company created a non-pharmacological therapy that combines clinical hypnosis and integrative therapeutic techniques using virtual reality. This approach aimed to reduce the need for medications and improve patient comfort and outcomes.

Co-founder Diane Jooris, who served as Chief Scientific Officer, has a background in clinical psychology and law, and practiced clinical hypnosis at the MD Anderson Cancer Center. Her experience helping cancer patients manage anxiety during invasive procedures inspired her to develop a more scalable, automated tool for hypnotherapy. Co-founder Mario Huyghe, who acted as CEO, has over two decades of experience in the healthcare business and eHealth sectors.

The company's core product, the Sedakit™, was a portable, all-in-one medical device that included a VR headset and provided a library of therapeutic sessions tailored to different patient needs, ages, and medical contexts, available in 12 languages. It was designed for use in various clinical fields, including anesthesia, oncology, interventional radiology, cardiology, and pediatrics. Clinical studies indicated that the digital sedation method could reduce procedure times, decrease involuntary movements, and in 80% of certain orthopedic surgeries, replace the sedative drug midazolam.

In September 2020, Oncomfort secured a €10 million ($11.8M) Series A funding round co-led by Debiopharm and Crédit Mutuel Innovation to advance product development and accelerate international expansion into European and American markets. The company gained a CE mark for its device in June 2018 and, by late 2020, had treated over 60,000 patients. In October 2023, Oncomfort was acquired by HypnoVR, a French competitor in the VR-based medical hypnosis space. The acquisition was intended to consolidate HypnoVR's market leadership in Europe and ensure the continued development and availability of Oncomfort's technology, which is now integrated into HypnoVR's offerings.

Keywords: digital sedation, virtual reality therapy, non-pharmacological pain relief, medical hypnosis, patient anxiety management, VR medical device, clinical hypnosis, digital therapeutics, medtech, pain management, anxiety relief, surgical support, interventional radiology, oncology patient support, pediatric sedation, non-invasive therapy, alternative to sedation, therapeutic VR, healthcare innovation, medical device