Children’s National Extends Deadline for Pitch Competition

Innovators and startup companies with devices designed to improve neonatal or NICU care now have a one-week extension until Aug. 19, 2019 to apply for the $150K “Make Your Medical Device Pitch for Kids!” competition funded by the National Capital Consortium for Pediatric Device Innovation (NCC-PDI). The competition will be held Sunday, Sept. 22 in Boston, Mass. in conjunction with the 7th Annual Pediatric Device Innovation Symposium that is hosted by Children’s National Health System.
 
The consortium is led by the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation at Children’s National Health System and the A. James Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland. NCC-PDI recently added new accelerators BioHealth Innovation and MedTech Innovator and design firm partner, Archimedic.
 
Through NCC-PDI’s efforts, progress has been made to close the gap in pediatric medical device development, but there still remains a significant unmet need for devices designed for the care of neonates, according to Kolaleh Eskandanian, Ph.D., MBA, PMP, vice president and chief innovation officer at Children’s National Health System and principal investigator of NCC-PDI.
 
“While one in 10 babies is born prematurely, too often our youngest patients are left behind when it comes to innovation. That’s why we are intentionally focusing this competition on NICU and neonatal devices so that we can incentivize and support innovators and startup companies working in this area,” said Eskandanian. “In addition to funding, we also guide these device developers through the commercialization process.”
 
Winners of the “Make Your Medical Device Pitch for Kids!” competition have the chance to receive awards up to $25,000 and participate in the newly created “Pediatric Device Innovator Accelerator Program” led by MedTech Innovator. The accelerator program provides intensive customized mentorship to help these early-stage companies bring their device to market in an accelerated fashion.”
 
Recognizing that a major barrier to pediatric medical device commercialization is the complex clinical trial process, the 7th Annual Pediatric Device Innovation Symposium addresses the theme “Pediatric Device Clinical Trials: Forging a Better Path.” 
 
Co-locating with AdvaMed’s The MedTech Conference for the third consecutive year, the action-oriented symposium will include several panel discussions that explore ways to optimize the pediatric device clinical trial process to assess safety and efficacy of devices in small populations through novel study designs that are cost-effective and efficient.
 
To register for the symposium, visit themedtechconference.com. For updates about speakers, panel themes and additional event details, visit pediatric-device-symposium.org. To apply for the pitch competition by the Aug. 19^th deadline, visit medtechinnovator.org/pediatricapply/