Dopl raises $6.3 million to move robotic ultrasound toward FDA clearance

Why it matters

Dopl is using a staffing service to build hospital distribution before its robot clears the FDA. If the model works, scarce sonographers could serve multiple rural sites remotely.

Ryan James, Steve Seslar and Wayne Monsky raised $6.3 million in seed financing for Dopl Technologies, their Bothell, Washington startup developing a robotic system that lets sonographers perform ultrasound exams from another location.

The July 27th round was led by SpringTide Ventures, with participation from WRF Capital, Tacoma Venture Fund, HeartX, Transform Health Ventures and Precursor Ventures, according to GeekWire. Dopl says the round brought its total funding above $8 million.

The financing buys Dopl time to complete clinical evaluations, product verification and validation, and the regulatory work required before hospitals can use its robotic system for remote exams. Dopl has completed pre-submission engagement with the Food and Drug Administration and plans to submit a 510(k) application in 2027, GeekWire reported. Dopl Traverse remains under development and is not commercially available.

That regulatory timetable shapes Dopl's business strategy. Dopl already sends traveling sonographers into hospitals through CareBridge, an in-person staffing service designed to address the same labor shortage that Traverse ultimately targets. The service gives Dopl customer relationships and operating experience while its robotic product proceeds through FDA review.

A robotics founder working with two physicians

James's route into medical robotics began in software. He studied computer science at the University of Michigan and earned a doctorate in biomedical and health informatics from the University of Washington. He later worked at Microsoft and developed GPU-accelerated medical image-processing software at Nvidia before serving as vice president of engineering at Pluto VR.

Dopl traces James's focus on healthcare access to his father, an obstetrician who brought care into underserved Black communities in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Dopl says that experience convinced James that changing where care is delivered can change outcomes.

Seslar and Monsky brought the clinical side of the thesis. Seslar, Dopl's chief operating officer, trained in pediatric cardiology and electrophysiology after earning medical and doctoral degrees from Georgetown University. Dopl says his interest in remote care grew from looking after parents who lived in rural Vermont.

Monsky, Dopl's chief medical officer, is an interventional radiologist who trained at Georgetown and Harvard. His work treating patients transported from rural Washington, Idaho, Alaska and Montana gave the founding group a specific distribution problem to attack: specialists and diagnostic equipment are concentrated in cities, while patients can be hours away.

The three founders began researching remote care delivery at the University of Washington in 2017 and formed Dopl in 2022. Their initial commercial target is ultrasound, a widely used imaging procedure that still depends on a trained operator physically manipulating a probe against a patient.

Dopl is building around existing medical hardware

Dopl's product suite combines Traverse, its robotic scanning system, with SonoFlex, software for scheduling and managing a distributed sonographer workforce. A secure connectivity and data layer called Dopl Connect links the remote operator to the bedside system.

Traverse is designed to work with commercially available robots and ultrasound equipment rather than requiring hospitals to replace their existing imaging systems. A remote sonographer controls the robot through a haptic interface, receiving force feedback intended to recreate the pressure and movement used during an in-person exam. Video connects the sonographer with the patient and clinical staff at the hospital.

Dopl also uses computer vision, AI and networking software to assist with control and workflow. The current product remains operator-driven: a qualified sonographer conducts the exam, while the robot transfers that person's movements to the bedside.

The hardware strategy could lower deployment costs and make Dopl easier to install across hospitals with different ultrasound equipment. It also leaves Dopl responsible for validating a system assembled from multiple components, including the robot, probe, controller, cameras, networking layer and clinical software.

Dopl says CareBridge customers have reduced patient wait times by more than 90%, a company-reported figure that reflects its in-person staffing service rather than remote robotic exams. GeekWire reported that Dopl has signed a letter of intent with a rural healthcare collaborative covering 31 critical access hospitals in Washington. Those relationships could become the first distribution channel for Traverse if the FDA clears it.

FDA clearance is the next constraint

Dopl enters a field with an established regulatory precedent. France-based AdEchoTech received FDA clearance in 2017 for MELODY, a system that allows a remote operator to control an ultrasound probe. Dopl argues that its haptic feedback and compatibility with commercial robots and ultrasound systems will distinguish Traverse.

The seed round gives Dopl capital to turn that technical distinction into clinical evidence. SpringTide is backing a model that connects three businesses: medical-device software, remote clinical labor and hospital workflow. The combination lets Dopl sell CareBridge before Traverse reaches the market, then attempt to migrate participating hospitals from traveling staff to remotely operated equipment.

That transition carries the central execution risk. Hospitals must be willing to install and maintain robotic equipment, clinicians must trust the remote interface, and Dopl must show regulators that the integrated system can perform consistently across sites and network conditions. Clearance would open the door to commercial deployment; it would not settle hospital procurement, reimbursement or adoption.

Dopl's founders are using the seed round to reach that starting line. Their wager is that the ultrasound labor shortage can be treated as a distribution problem, with sonographers operating across multiple hospitals instead of relocating to every community that needs them.