Fairfield company Spanton Dynamics receives $100,000 grant

FAIRFIELD – A Fairfield-based company just received a $100,000 grant from the Iowa Economic Development Authority’s Demonstration Fund.

Spanton Dynamics was awarded the six-figure grant about two weeks ago after the company pitched its prototype for a medical device called the Spanton Board to a panel at IEDA. The Spanton Board is a power-driven spine board that operates like a conveyor belt, “contouring underneath a patient for optimal stabilization,” according to the company.

Anna Spanton, who founded the company in 2019 and is its CEO, said this is the second IEDA grant the company has received, with the first being a proof-of-concept grant two years ago. She said it was an honor to receive the $100,000 Demonstration Fund grant, and that the company has now raised $533,000 toward the production and distribution of its Spanton Board.

“We are really proud,” Spanton said. “It is a feat doing business as a medical technology company in a rural town in Iowa. That’s probably our biggest hurdle.”

Spanton is from Fairfield and went to school here, and until a few years ago was living in southern California. But then she felt a calling to move back home.

“I was looking for a good place with good hard-working folks who had a desire to manufacture in the United States,” she said.

Spanton said she saw an opportunity to create a better spine board because current spine boards are an “antiquated technology” that still result in patient movement.

“We are excited to revolutionize this industry by offering a safer and more secure transport system,” she said.

Spanton said 2024 promises to be an exciting year for the company. Spanton Dynamics completed its engineering for a new, pro-sports model of its Spanton Board, and it will demonstrate this device to representatives of the National Football League in March.

“Partnering with Sports Medicine Concepts, a renown sports medicine facility that works exclusively with professional athletics, the Spanton Board will be used in a full NFL simulation with three athletic trainers and a critical care paramedic, mimicking a live field injury,” stated the company’s end-of-year report in 2023. “The simulations will cover spine injury and cardiac arrest situations. Furthermore, the Spanton Board will complete individual NFL team trainings throughout the summer, with first sales and delivery expected for the 2024-25 season.”

Spanton said the NFL approached her after learning about the Spanton Board, and asked to have input in developing the company’s pro-sports model.

“They know first-hand the injuries their athletes sustain,” she said. “The NFL is the leader in the industry for safety protocols, and it’s trickling down into collegiate and high school sports.”

Spanton said she’s hoping to branch out into other professional sports later this year. As the company raises more equity and receives more grants, it will develop other products related to emergency medicine and hospital transfers.

Spanton’s son, James Hopton, is studying to be a paramedic, and plans to have a career in emergency medicine and eventually join the company. Other members of the company include Spanton’s brother John Spanton, vice president of sales, and Nicholas Osborne, who is in charge of operations.

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Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com

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