The Pennsylvania Pediatric Medical Device Consortium https://ppdc.research.chop.edu with funding from FDA, recently chose five projects from nine finalists in a competition to receive seed grants of $50,000 each to develop medical devices for children.
The Pennsylvania Pediatric Medical Device Consortium PPDC based at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), provides know-how and seed funding to help innovators translate promising ideas into commercialized medical devices for children. The PPDC is a collaboration involving CHOP, the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, sciVelo of the University of Pittsburgh, and the University of Pennsylvania.
The medical devices include tracking newborn development, a wearable phototherapy device, a portable oral aspirator, a novel endotracheal tube, and a one-step adrenal crisis management device.
The five projects include:
- Neoneur https://Neoneur.com in Pennington N.J. is creating a telehealth-enabled device that provides objective measurement of infant oral feeding capability and development status. All infants must have feeding skills to thrive, but currently clinical observation is the only means to assess them. The Neoneur device will be able to monitor feeding and skill development for at-risk infants both in the hospital through telehealth at home.
- Tychermont Products of Philadelphia https://theorvac.com is developing the OrVac™, a portable oral aspirator to assist patients with pediatric dysphagia and other swallowing disorders. These patients do not have a way to self-suction oral waste without assistance. The OrVac returns control and independence to the patient by providing a portable non-invasive and user controlled device to evacuate oral liquids.
- The University of Illinois at Chicago https://www.uic.edu in partnership with Olifant Medical Inc., will continue work on the SecureTube ™, a new endotracheal tube with several features designed to mitigate various factors that can lead to unplanned extubations. Unplanned extubations can lead to significant complications, especially in young infants who could suffer cardiac arrest requiring CPR and may need an emergency re-intubation. Unplanned extubations can also increase respiratory tract infections, increase the length of ICU and hospital stays, and can result in an overall increase in healthcare costs.
- SOLUtion Medical of Philadelphia https://solutionmedlic.com is developing the TwistJect™, a device that enables a one-step delivery device to manage children during an adrenal crisis. Children and adolescents experience some of the most severe morbidities of all patients that experience adrenal crisis. This is due to the difficulties in managing adrenal insufficiency in younger populations and the difficulties in providing rescue injections.
- TheraB Medical, https://therabmedical.coma pediatric startup in Michigan, is developing SnugLit, a wearable infant swaddle that treats neonatal jaundice with phototherapy. Neonatal jaundice affects 2-4 million in the U.S and 20 million globally. The most common treatment involves light therapy systems, which requires constant monitoring by nursing staff and can cause prolonged separation of mother and child. With SnugLit, babies can receive treatment in the arms of their caregivers.
Applications for PPDC funding are accepted from throughout the U.S. The Consortium also accepts applications year round for in-kind services and expert advice.