By MeaCulpa (Empowered by AI)
For more than a century, the humble syringe has remained essentially unchanged — a barrel, a plunger, a needle. It’s one of medicine’s most familiar instruments, and one of its most overlooked. But in Omaha, a startup called Precision Syringe is challenging the notion that this simple tool is beyond improvement.
Founded by ophthalmic surgeon Dr. Donny Suh and led by CEO Adrian Blake, Precision Syringe was born out of the need for greater control in delicate eye surgeries, especially when treating infants. In such cases, fractions of a millimeter or microliter can make the difference between success and harm. Traditional syringes simply weren’t built for that level of precision.
The Problem: When “Good Enough” Isn’t Enough
Standard syringes were designed for general injections — vaccines, fluids, anesthesia — not micro-targeted, high-stakes procedures. Their two-handed operation and jerky plunger motion make fine control difficult. Even minor inconsistencies can cause drug waste, tissue damage, or patient risk.
Precision Syringe tackles that problem with a one-handed, pencil-grip design that enables smoother, more accurate dosing. It’s a rethink of ergonomics, control, and reliability — transforming an everyday instrument into a precision device. Early adopters include ophthalmologists, aesthetic injectors, and lab researchers, all of whom value tactile accuracy over commodity pricing.
A Market Hidden in Plain Sight
At first glance, syringes seem too ordinary to be innovative. But the global injection and drug-delivery device market is enormous, exceeding $15 billion and growing rapidly thanks to biologics, gene therapy, and minimally invasive procedures. Within that market, specialized syringes that improve safety or reduce waste can command premium prices.
Precision Syringe is betting on those high-margin niches. Its early opportunity lies in fields like ophthalmology and aesthetics, where precision tools are vital and clinicians are willing to pay for reliability. Over time, the company hopes to scale into broader markets as its technology and manufacturing mature. In September, Blake commented via Linkedin, “It’s a natural for Fillers, Botox, and Hyaluronic acid. FDA approval expected in January.”
If successful, even modest adoption could push the company into multimillion-dollar revenue territory — an ambitious but realistic goal given the growing demand for safer, more controlled injection systems.
Nebraska’s Med-Tech Momentum
Precision Syringe isn’t alone in redefining what medical innovation looks like in Nebraska. Peeq Pro, an Omaha-based eye-care startup, is bringing consumer-grade design thinking to ocular hygiene, turning what used to be a clinical afterthought into a smart, subscription-based health routine. Finding opportunities through the eyes of patients appears to be a trend in Nebraska.
Meanwhile, DARO, working out of the Combine in Lincoln, is revolutionizing livestock disease detection through noninvasive molecular surveillance, helping producers curb billion-dollar losses from preventable infections.
This type of Nebraska flavor helps explain Precision Syringe’s potentially odd looking leap into veterinary medicine as an alternative market. Precise dosing and gentle delivery can reduce stress for animals and improve treatment outcomes. Veterinary specialists are using the device in small-animal ophthalmology and dermatology, where micro-dosing is essential. The crossover between human and animal health opens a new market channel, giving Precision Syringe a path to scale without competing head-to-head with mass-market medical suppliers.
Together, these startups (and others like them) illustrate a larger trend: Nebraska’s med-tech community isn’t just copying coastal models, it’s reimagining overlooked problems and turning them into scalable businesses.
The Road Ahead
Precision Syringe’s challenge now is one every medical-device company faces: navigating regulation, proving efficacy, and convincing clinicians to change long-standing habits. But its advantages, including a clinician-driven origin, university-backed R&D support from UNeTech, and a clear clinical need, position it well to make that leap.
And in many ways, that’s what makes this story quintessentially Nebraskan: innovation that grows from real-world necessity rather than hype. Precision Syringe isn’t chasing futuristic AI or digital health trends; it’s reengineering a century-old tool to do its job safer, smarter, and with more humanity.
As Nebraska’s ecosystem continues to produce startups like Precision Syringe, Peeq Pro, and DARO, the state’s reputation as a quiet but capable MedTech hub becomes harder to ignore. Sometimes, the next revolution in healthcare doesn’t come from Silicon Valley. It starts in Omaha, with a better syringe.
