Melbourne medtech Akeeko Medical has developed a handheld device that inserts a ureteric stent in about 5 minutes in the emergency department, a procedure that usually requires a hospital stay of more than a day, a general anaesthetic and time in an operating theatre.
When a kidney stone blocks the ureter, the standard fix is a stent to keep urine draining. Each of those admissions costs the health system around $8,000, according to an article published by Morgans in September 2025. Roughly 600,000 of these stent insertions are carried out worldwide each year, nearly all of them in theatre, which ties up beds, surgeons and anaesthetists.
How the device works
The Akeeko Stent Inserter combines what is normally a multi-step procedure using several devices into one compact, single-use tool, the University of Melbourne said in July 2025. The aim is less pain for the patient, a shorter procedure and freed-up operating rooms.
The device was first used on a patient at the Austin Hospital in November 2024, where a stent was inserted and the stone later passed. It has not yet been registered and is intended only for use by qualified health professionals.
“Our device allows a stent to be inserted without admission, without a general anaesthetic, in about 5 minutes in ED,” co-founder Associate Professor Joseph Ischia told Morgans.
A urologist and an engineer
Ischia is a urologist who trained at the Austin and has spent more than two decades treating kidney stone pain. He met mechanical engineer Donald Fry, now 85, at the Freemasons Hospital in East Melbourne in February 2021, and the pair co-founded the company about a year later, Morgans reported. Fry has more than 60 years of engineering experience and was the first inductee into the Australian Mechanical Engineering Hall of Fame.
The business was originally called JiffyStent and was renamed Akeeko Medical in early 2025.
Funding and the road to market
Akeeko had raised $4.5 million by September 2025, mostly from family, friends and high net worth investors, according to Morgans. In 2024 it was one of 20 recipients of a grant under the Victorian Government’s Medtech Market Growth Program, which supported onshoring of the device’s electronics development.
Ischia has estimated savings of about $4,000 per case, or roughly $30 million a year in Australia alone. The company has held a pre-submission meeting with the US Food and Drug Administration and plans filings with the FDA and the TGA. Reports in 2025 targeted early 2026 for those submissions; the timetable has since moved later into 2026.
Morgans disclosed that its author held shares in Akeeko and that the firm had acted on a 2025 capital raise for the company.
Jack’s take
Hospitals won’t need much convincing. A procedure that frees up a theatre slot and a bed is an easy sell to anyone running an emergency department. The regulators are the real hurdle, and that is where the timeline will be decided.