Children’s National Extends Deadline for Neonatal Device Competition

Innovators and startup companies with devices designed to improve neonatal or NICU care have until August 19 to apply for the $150,000 “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, September 22, in Boston in conjunction with the 7th Annual Pediatric Device Innovation Symposium that is hosted by Children’s National Health System.
This is the ninth competition sponsored by NCC-PDI, one of five U.S. FDA-funded grant programs focused on addressing unmet needs for pediatric medical devices. 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, although there remains a significant unmet need for devices designed for the care of neonates, according to Kolaleh Eskandanian, PhD, 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,” says 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.”