Hearty Bardy.

• Author: Waller, Hailey
• Position: NCTREND: Charlotte Region - Gust Bardy

After three decades of helping develop life-altering products, Charlottean Jon Hunt isn't slowing down a beat. With Seattle cardiologist Gust Bardy, he cofounded Bardy Diagnostics, which has developed a heart-monitoring device that attracted $27.6 million in funding in September. The money will pay for adding salespeople and an administrative staff for the company's team of about 20 people.

Bardy's investors are well-versed in medical products: They include private-equity groups SV Life Sciences of Boston and New York-based Health Enterprise Partners and St. Louisbased Ascension Health, the world's largest nonprofit health care system. Bardy's board includes David Tamburri of Health Enterprise, which invests in medical companies on behalf of 26 U.S. hospital systems and insurers.

Hunt, who has a Ph.D. in motor control from Penn State University, spent his early career working for famed Georgia physician Jack Hughston, a pioneer in reconstructive knee procedures for athletes. He moved to pharma giant Pfizer and, later, California-based Cameron Health. Bardy was an executive at Cameron, which developed the first defibrillator applied entirely under a patient's skin. It was approved in Europe in 2009 and in the United States in 2012. That same year, Marlborough, Mass.-based Boston Scientific bought Cameron for more than $1.35 billion.

Their new product monitors heart rhythms for people suspected...