Kaminari Medical

Kaminari Medical is a medical technology company based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, founded in 2020 as a spin-off of the Erasmus Medical Centre. The company is developing a next-generation intravascular imaging platform that combines intravascular ultrasound with photoacoustic imaging — a modality it brands as IVP (Intravascular Ultrasound + Photoacoustic) — to visualise both the structure and the composition of atherosclerotic plaque inside the coronary arteries. The clinical problem Kaminari Medical addresses is coronary artery disease (CAD), which the company describes as the leading cause of death worldwide and as affecting more than 300 million people per year. CAD is largely driven by lipid-rich plaques that narrow the coronary arteries and can rupture, causing heart attacks and acute coronary syndromes. According to the company, existing diagnostic tools lack the ability to precisely identify high-risk plaques prone to rupture, leaving interventional cardiologists with limited information when choosing a treatment strategy. Kaminari Medical states that each year 4 million patients are assessed with intracoronary imaging, and that 12% return due to underassessment of unstable plaque. Kaminari Medical's proposed solution is an imaging catheter that integrates high-performance sensor hardware with advanced processing software. The system is designed to provide simultaneous assessment of the physical structure of the vessel (lumen dimensions) and its underlying composition (plaque characteristics), including features associated with plaque instability such as lipid cores and fibrous cap thickness. The company positions this as precision guidance for complex decision-making during percutaneous coronary interventions, with the potential to identify unstable plaque and reduce re-intervention rates by 10–12%. Kaminari Medical explicitly notes that clinical investigations are pending to support these claims and that its products do not yet have CE or FDA clearance. The company is led by CEO Jeroen Kodde, MSc, with Prof. Dr. Gijs van Soest and Prof. Dr. Ton van der Steen named as inventors. Kaminari Medical describes its team as having over three decades of experience in the field and lists quality mindset, patient safety and evidence-driven development among its values. Its growth journey to date spans patented technology, prototype development, functional prototypes tested in a first-in-human study, and a first-in-human study in preparation with Erasmus MC Rotterdam. The company is backed by a selection of existing investors and supported by grants, and it works with partners in the cardiovascular imaging field. The name "Kaminari" is Japanese for thunder and lightning — literally the "god-sound" — a reference to the way the technology "hears the flash of light impact the plaque."

Kaminari Medical was founded in 2020 as a spin-off of the Rotterdam-based Erasmus Medical Centre in the Netherlands. Its origins lie in academic research on intravascular imaging, and the company names Prof. Dr. Gijs van Soest and Prof. Dr. Ton van der Steen as inventors of its core technology. The company's name derives from the Japanese word "kaminari," meaning thunder and lightning — literally the "god-sound" — a metaphor for the way its photoacoustic technology "hears" the flash of light impacting plaque. From its founding, Kaminari Medical has focused on a single clinical problem: coronary artery disease (CAD), which it describes as the leading cause of death worldwide and as affecting more than 300 million people per year. The company's thesis is that lipid-rich plaques that narrow the coronary arteries and can rupture are inadequately characterised by existing diagnostics, leaving interventional cardiologists with limited information when deciding on treatment. It cites the statistic that each year 4 million patients are assessed with intracoronary imaging, with 12% returning due to underassessment of unstable plaque. Kaminari Medical's development path has progressed through several stages that the company presents as its "growth journey": patented technology, prototype development, functional prototypes developed for testing in a first-in-human (FiH) study, and a first-in-human study in preparation with Erasmus MC Rotterdam. The company states that its products do not yet have CE or FDA clearance and that clinical investigations are pending to support its performance claims. The technology combines intravascular ultrasound with photoacoustic imaging — branded IVP (Intravascular Ultrasound + Photoacoustic) — to provide simultaneous assessment of vessel structure (lumen dimensions) and composition (plaque characteristics), including features associated with plaque instability such as lipid cores and fibrous cap thickness. Kaminari Medical positions the platform as precision guidance for complex decision-making during percutaneous coronary interventions, with the potential to identify unstable plaque and reduce re-intervention rates by 10–12%. The company is led by CEO Jeroen Kodde, MSc, and describes its team as having over three decades of experience in the field. It lists quality mindset, patient safety and evidence-driven development among its values, and states that it is backed by a selection of existing investors and supported by grants. It also works with partners in the cardiovascular imaging field. As of the available evidence, Kaminari Medical remains a private, pre-commercial medical technology company headquartered in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

• 2020

  Founded as a spin-off of Erasmus Medical Centre, Rotterdam, Netherlands.

• Patented technology established as the foundation of the company's intravascular imaging platform.

• Prototype development and functional prototypes developed for testing in a first-in-human study.

• First-in-human study in preparation with Erasmus MC Rotterdam.

Developer of next-generation intravascular imaging for precision guidance in coronary interventions; pre-commercial, with CE/FDA clearance pending.

• IVP intravascular imaging catheter

  An imaging catheter combining ultrasound and photoacoustics to visualise plaque structure and composition in coronary arteries.

• Intravascular Ultrasound + Photoacoustic (IVP) system

  A platform integrating high-performance sensor hardware with advanced processing software for simultaneous structural and compositional assessment of the vessel wall.

1. 1Kaminari Medical – official website homepagekaminarimedical.com
2. 2About us – Kaminari Medicalkaminarimedical.com
3. 3Our Technology – Kaminari Medicalkaminarimedical.com
4. 4Kaminari Medical (Netherlands) – Wikidatawikidata.org