Compremium AG Recruits Children’s Hospital Exec to Head its Pediatrics Division

Swiss medtech firm Compremium AG has appointed Kolaleh Eskandanian, Ph.D., as chief Strategy and Innovation officer and head of its newly formed Division of Pediatrics and Special Populations.

Dr. Eskandanian joins Compremium from Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C., where she most recently served as vice president and chief innovation officer, executive director of the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation, and founding executive of Innovation Ventures. Her appointment marks a strategic milestone in Compremium’s expansion into pediatric and special populations, reinforcing its commitment to developing precision diagnostics and next-generation health technologies for patients worldwide.

In her new role, Dr. Eskandanian will oversee innovation strategy across all product lines at Compremium, while placing a strategic focus on advancing solutions for pediatric and special populations. Her responsibilities include shaping long-term innovation pathways, strengthening regulatory and commercialization strategies, and scaling Compremium’s global impact through clinical and research partnerships.

“Dr. Eskandanian brings unmatched expertise in pediatric innovation, clinical translation, and public-private partnerships,” Compremium AG CEO Vincent Baumann said. “Her leadership will accelerate our pipeline and elevate our mission to bring smarter, safer technologies to children and special populations around the world.”

During her tenure at Children’s National, Dr. Eskandanian developed some of the most influential pediatric innovation programs in the United States, securing more than $35 million in federal funding and serving as principal investigator on two major federally-funded accelerator programs: one funded by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to support pediatric medical device development, and another funded by the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR/BARDA) focused on pediatric medical countermeasures. These prestigious federal programs create national pipelines for regulated product innovation and commercialization in pediatric health care.

Dr. Eskandanian also conceptualized and orchestrated the inclusion of Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JLABS in Washington, D.C., a landmark initiative that brought one of the world’s leading incubator platforms to the District. This initiative has significantly strengthened the U.S. National Capital Region’s life sciences and medtech ecosystem for early-stage startup companies.

Dr. Eskandanian developed Innovation Ventures, a nationally recognized commercialization model, and under her leadership, the hospital’s intellectual property portfolio expanded to more than 160 issued patents in the United States and other countries. Multiple medical devices and technologies were successfully licensed and launched into the market during her tenure.

To clinically validate advanced AI-powered diagnostic technologies tailored to children, Dr. Eskandanian spearheaded the forming of the Compremium–Children’s National collaboration announced earlier this year. In her new role at Compremium, she will continue to shape this partnership from the industry side, advancing the development of real-world, regulated solutions for high-need areas in child health by adding a strategic network of top research-intensive hospitals to Compremium’s portfolio from across the United States and internationally, expanding the company’s clinical validation and deployment footprint and accelerating its path to impact.

Dr. Eskandanian’s leadership has been recognized through peer-reviewed publications and funding, along with numerous industry accolades, including awards from the Washington Business Journal, Becker’s Hospital Review, and Technical.ly, to name a few. She continues to serve as a leading voice in pediatric innovation policy and strategy.

Compremium is a Swiss medical device company from Bern, Switzerland, innovating in diagnosing pressure conditions in the human body. Compremium’s proprietary technology of combining ultrasound and pressure sensing was pioneered by Dr. Ulrich Baumann. In 2020, the company was founded by Vincent Baumann and private investors to bring this technology to the market. The technology has been proven in more than 40 clinical studies and could potentially help diagnose more than 30 medical indications as well as impact the diagnosis of various other medical conditions. The lead indication for diagnosis of tissue-related conditions is 510(k)-cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as of April 2023, and Compremium plans to submit additional FDA and CE submissions this year. A prototype of the device has been in use by NASA on the International Space Station (ISS) for eight years.