The National Capital Consortium for Pediatric Device Innovation recently announced five electrophysiology devices that can monitor and treat congenital heart disease and arrhythmia in pediatric patients.
The five winners of the annual NCC-PDI “Make Your Medical Device Pitch for Kids!” competition will share a $150,000 grant from the FDA to support the advancement of pediatric medical devices.
The competition was led by NCC-PDI partner Medtech Innovator and was part of the 9th Annual Symposium on Pediatric Device Innovation.
Congenital heart defects are the most common type of birth defect, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It affects six out of 1,000 babies born in the US each year and is often complicated by arrhythmias. Much progress has been made over the past 10 years in technologies to treat arrhythmias in adults, but pediatrics has been slower to innovate with only five devices approved for use in children in the same time frame. As a result, pediatric patients are often treated with off-label or makeshift devices to treat pediatric arrhythmias.
“Recognizing this unmet need, NCC-PDI opened the challenge earlier this year to select companies to participate in Medtech Innovator’s pediatric accelerator program, powered by NCC-PDI. The five companies have benefited greatly from the accelerator program and are well positioned to compete for funding. They have the potential to improve pediatric health and provide a higher standard of care for children with CHD,” said Kolaleh Eskandanian, VP and Chief Innovation Officer at Children’s National Hospital and principal investigator of NCC-PDI, in a press release.
“For too long, children’s unique needs have been overlooked in pediatric resource development. Thanks to the support of the FDA, we are able to build our challenge competitions around the most unmet needs, which are determined by a thorough needs assessment and market analysis conducted to inform each proposal request. The funding will drive pediatric innovation and help more companies navigate the path to commercialization,” said Eskandanian.
The NCC-PDI competition is led by the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation at Children’s National Hospital and the A. James Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland, with support from partners Medtech Innovator, BioHealth Innovation and design firm Archimedic. All participants had the opportunity to participate in a one-year accelerator program from Medtech Innovator.
“It was a privilege to learn and support the dedicated teams that pioneered these transformative health solutions during Medtech Innovator’s accelerator program, which provides individualized mentorship and resources companies need to successfully progress toward product commercialization” said Paul Grand, CEO of Medtech Innovator. “Child aids are a huge challenge to bring to market, and we are honored to leverage the world’s leading device ecosystem to ensure these life-enhancing innovations successfully reach the children who need them most.”
These are the five finalists of this year’s pitch competition.
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