Summary: Six pediatric cardiology innovators were awarded $50,000 each in the “Make Your Medical Device Pitch for Kids!” competition to help bring their innovative devices to market. The competition, sponsored by APDI and Additional Ventures, aims to address the unmet need for pediatric-specific medical devices to improve care for children with heart conditions.

Key Takeaways:

  • The winning devices focus on improving pediatric cardiology care with innovations like noninvasive monitoring, ultrasound, and home-based care solutions.
  • The awardees will receive not only grant funding but also access to crucial support services from APDI, helping them navigate the path to market.

Six medical technology innovators focused on pediatric cardiology were awarded $50,000 each in the “Make Your Medical Device Pitch for Kids!” competition in Toronto. These grants will help the winners bring their devices to market and improve care for children with heart conditions.

Grant Recipients Announced

The winners, selected from a field of ten finalists, are:

  • Bloom Standard, Minneapolis—Autonomous, hands-free ultrasound
  • Compremium AG, Bern, Switzerland—Noninvasive central venous pressure estimation for pediatric patients
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.—Polymeric auxetic stent to treat pediatric aortic coarctation
  • OxiWear, Arlington, Va.—Home measurement of oxygen levels in pediatric congenital heart disease
  • PyrAmes Inc., Cupertino, Calif.—Improved, wearable, noninvasive pediatric blood pressure monitor
  • Sibel Health, Chicago—Hospital-to-home monitoring for pediatric heart conditions

Competition Overview and Support for Innovators

The competition is presented by the Alliance for Pediatric Device Innovation (APDI), a nonprofit consortium led by Children’s National Hospital and funded by the FDA, along with Additional Ventures, a nonprofit focused on improving clinical care for individuals with single ventricle heart defects. In addition to the $50,000 grants, awardees gain access to engineering, regulatory, reimbursement, and clinical trials study design support, as well as data science services.

According to the CDC, around 40,000 children are born annually with congenital heart defects. There is a significant need for pediatric-specific medical devices to monitor and treat these patients in cardiology, interventional cardiology, and related fields. The grant program aims to identify and support the development and commercialization of devices addressing these critical needs.

Supporting Pediatric Innovators

“Congratulations to our awardees, whose innovative technologies show great promise in advancing care for pediatric heart patients,” said Kolaleh Eskandanian, PhD, MBA, vice president and chief innovation officer at Children’s National and APDI program director. “We are thrilled to welcome this new cohort into our pediatric device accelerator, where they will collaborate with clinician-scientists at Children’s National and benefit from APDI’s full range of services designed to support the development of pediatric devices.”

APDI is one of five nonprofit consortia in the FDA’s Pediatric Device Consortia grant program, designed to support the development of medical devices addressing the unmet needs of pediatric patients. Led by Children’s National, APDI partners with prominent institutions like Johns Hopkins University, CIMIT at Mass General Brigham, Tufts Medical Center, MedStar Health Research Institute, MedTech Color, and OrthoPediatrics Corp.