Under the watchful eye of a beloved cat, BRAEBON Medical Corporation begins its story in a humble basement. Richard A. Bonato, Ph.D., President and CEO, and Don C. Bradley, B.Sc., Founder and Chairman, started the medical equipment manufacturing company over 10 years ago with the vision to develop a reliable, powerful, but simple way to use a home sleep apnea recording system.

Today, the Ottawa-based company is a leading designer, manufacturer, and distributor of diagnostic home sleep apnea recorders, diagnostic sleep sensors, accessories, therapeutic intraoral appliances, and software solutions. As Bonato explains, “We bootstrapped ourselves by selling sleep sensor technology to hospitals and sleep laboratories, and used that revenue to fund the development of our sleep recorders.” 

Innovating sleep medicine

Now at the forefront of innovation in sleep medicine, BRAEBON’s MediByte family of home sleep apnea recorders and DentiTrac intraoral recorder introduced revolutionary technology to sleep disorder treatment. In fact, it was the first company in the world to receive FDA clearance for an intraoral recording device with its flagship product, DentiTrac.

Speaking to the impact that this technology can have on the nearly 1 billion people who are affected by sleep apnea, Bonato says “DentiTrac is an intraoral recorder that contains sensors, memory, and power to measure time, spatial orientation, and temperature. Our patented technology uses these measures to confirm whether or not a patient is wearing their prescribed sleep apnea dental appliance. While continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is the leading treatment for sleep apnea, oral appliance therapy is the second most common solution.” 

Patient adherence to therapy is an insurance requirement because sleep apnea causes excessive sleepiness that can be dangerous, particularly for those in safety-sensitive occupations like commercial truck drivers, pilots, and train engineers.

While CPAPs have had compliance measurement capabilities for decades, BRAEBON’s technology levels the playing field between CPAP and oral appliance therapy. Now, we can objectively measure therapy compliance for patients using an intraoral device. This enables physicians and dentists to offer oral appliance therapy as a viable, insured alternative.

Although DentiTrac first launched more than 10 years ago, BRAEBON has been busy modernizing outdated technologies and components within its manufacturing processes and products. This ensures that the technology stays relevant, and that production is as efficient as possible. With a global distribution channel that now spans 70 countries, BRAEBON is able to leverage direct communication to hospitals, physicians, and dentists worldwide.

“Our next generation of DentiTrac will substantially enhance patient outcomes because the wireless technology, upgraded interface, and handheld app will make it significantly easier for patients to monitor their own compliance data. We’ve found that the more the patient is engaged with their therapy, the more likely they are to continue using the treatment.”

braebon medical corporation and the ontario centre of innovation

Funding from The Ontario Centre of Innovation (OCI) has been crucial in BRAEBON’s pursuit of these upgrades and enabled the company to collaborate with new technology partners. 

“Ontario’s Digitalization Competence Centre (DCC) is designed to help Ontario SMEs modernize their operations and solutions by adopting digital technologies,” said Chris Ritchie, Business Development Manager at OCI. “Through $165,000 in DCC funding, BRAEBON has been able to make their DentriTrac solution more compelling and easier for customers to use.  BRAEBON is empowering patients with accessible, impactful solutions for managing sleep apnea—a critical health issue affecting millions worldwide.”

When asked about BRAEBON’s future, Bonato explains that the company is “planning to enhance DentiTrac’s capabilities to monitor treatment effectiveness while simultaneously permitting the device to bill for medical tests. All of this would be seamlessly integrated through the existing BRAEBON BridgeBuilder Cloud Portal. Patients would undergo a medical test while they sleep in the comfort of their own beds. This would facilitate better collaboration between physicians and dentists and transform DentiTrac into a revenue-generating technology.”