Stanford University, $20,000

For the 4 million people suffering from palmar hyperhidrosis—excessive sweating of the hands—treatment is costly and time consuming. palmm developed a convenient at-home treatment using a wearable electrical current delivery system. The company is projecting to attract three percent of 1.8 million potential customers within their third year of sales. The team from Stanford University participated in our E-Team program in 2016 and 2017, ASPIRE for Life Sciences/MedTech in 2018, and OPEN Minds in 2018. VentureWell invested in the company in 2019 alongside individual angels.

University of Pittsburgh, $20,000

A device that can measure compliance of sidewalks and pathways for current Americans with Disabilities Act Guidelines such as cross slope, running slope, roughness and level change, aimed at helping the entities responsible for development, construction, and evaluation of pathway surfaces comply with government regulations.

http://www.pathvu.com

Biopsies frequently come back inconclusive due to poor sample quality. Pathware created software solutions to simplify digital pathology workflows and reduce the rate of repeat procedures. Bioptic™, a cloud-based sample management platform, returns a biopsy quality determination in minutes, verifying that a viable biopsy was collected with greater than 90% certainty. The original team included members from the University of Alabama and University of Michigan. They participated in the National Science Foundation I-Corps program in 2016, the E-Team program in 2017, ASPIRE Healthcare at TechTown in 2017, and OPEN Minds in 2018. VentureWell invested in the company in February 2019 alongside Valley Venture Mentors and Unity Point Health.

Johns Hopkins University, $5,000

Refractory ascites, fluid buildup in the peritoneal cavity that does not go away after paracentesis, affects 100,000 people in the US. Existing methods to relieve refractory ascites are invasive as well as expensive. Perileve is an implantable pump that will push ascites fluid into the stomach using only the body’s natural pressure fluctuations. The pump’s process of alleviation will help patients live longer, more comfortable lives.

Duke University, $25,000

Physao is building a platform to help individuals with chronic lung conditions like asthma and COPD better manage their condition.

New York University, $25,000

Johns Hopkins University, $5,000

This team has developed a novel device to safely treat patients with calcified plaque buildup in the coronary arteries. The device could increase patient safety, improve ease of use for interventionalists, and reduce the cost burden on the healthcare system.

Case Western Reserve University, $5,000

Catheter-related bloodstream infections affect 250,000 patients annually. CRBI’s increase healthcare costs with extended hospital stays and higher patient care costs. The current method of port cleaning is time consuming and most often protocol compliance is low. The sterile strip dispenser attaches to the injection port and is filled with sterilant bubbles. The strip is pulled across the port and bursts during scrubbing, saturating material on the strip for disinfection.

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, $5,000

Commercially available prosthetic devices controlled by neural signals are extremely expensive, typically costing $30,000-$40,000. Psyonic is developing advanced, low-cost, neurally controlled prosthetic hands that can be produced for less than $1,000.

Art Center College of Design, $5,000

An estimated 360 million people worldwide have significant hearing loss (more than 40 decibels). The Q system is a wearable captioning device that displays text and graphed emotions in addition to allowing people with hearing loss to feel the sounds that they are missing.

Johns Hopkins University, $5,000

This team is developing the QRSTee, a wearable cardioverter-defibrillator that maintains contact with the patient’s skin to detect heartbeat, determines whether the patient has a life-threatening arrhythmia, and delivers shocks to the heart if necessary.

University of Pennsylvania, $5,000

When medical conditions prevent patients from consuming food orally, doctors insert what is known as an enteral tube. This tube allows direct delivery of vital nutrients to the patient’s digestive track. The process of enteral tube feeding is safe, efficient, and well-designed for use by medical professionals. However, for the 344,000 people who use an enteral tube for feeding at home, away from the supervision of medical professionals. it can be a messy, complicated, and frustrating process. Quasar Medical is developing a pump that simplifies the process, removing many avenues for error and mitigating a serious strangulation risk.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

2014 BMEIdea Second Prize Winner, winning $5,000

Stage 1 & 2 E-Team grantee, $25,000

A new drug delivery technology that will simplify drug reconstitution between a lyophilized (freeze-dried) drug and water at the point of care. It is designed for patients who regularly inject lyophilized drugs such as hCG, insulin or HGH.

http://www.recontherapeutics.com

The team members:

Christopher Lee, 24, Ann Arbor, MI;
John Lewandowski, 24, Shaker Heights, OH;
Ben Maimon, 24, Westfield,. NJ;
Babak Movassaghi, 39, Dusseldorf, Germany;
Ho-Jun Suk, 28, Incheon, South Korea

The device:

LyoKit is a drug delivery technology designed for patients who regularly inject lyophilized drugs such as hCG, insulin or HGH. This technology simplifies drug reconstitution between a lyophilized (freeze-dried) drug and sterile solvent. The LyoKit device couples a standard off-the-shelf syringe with an external pressurized water chamber, resulting in a simple one-step reconstitution process. The device is customizable to a full range of biologics and can be rapidly adopted to market with minimal regulatory concerns.

The problem:

The gold standard for at-home, self-injection of large biologics involves providing a patient with a vial of drug and a vial of injection solvent. The process of preparing a dose involves 5-10 steps, and necessitates the use of 2-4 syringes and needles, transfer vials, and patient calculations leading to frequent mistakes and decreased compliance. In addition, unused doses require immediate refrigeration, which is extremely inconvenient.

The solution:

Recon Therapeutics has developed a new drug delivery technology that simplifies drug reconstitution between a lyophilized drug and sterile solvent at the point of care. The Lyokit Drug Reconstitution System differentiates itself by being highly intuitive to use, reconstituting biologics with simple one finger actuation. In addition, the reconstitution process occurs using an external pressurized chamber, enabling reconstitution of biologics with a wide spectrum of solubility profiles. Lastly, the Lyokit is an all-inclusive kit that encompasses injection site sterility, needle safety, and disposal all in one embodiment. Coupled with our business model of integrating the system with off-the-shelf syringes, Recon can provide a cost advantage of up to 60% to both the customer and pharmacy, enabling Recon Therapeutics to access an annual market for drug reconstitution technologies exceeding $1.8 billion.

Challenges encountered:

According to team member Christopher Lee, “As a team we have faced many challenges in distilling our regulatory pathway and getting in touch with the correct experts in this domain. In addition, we also initially struggled to determine what type of products that require reconstitution should be targeted with our device first.”

Accomplishments and progress to date:

Recon Therapeutics has incorporated as a LLC and filed a full utility patent application. They have completed a first pass design freeze and developed a beta prototype, which has been designed for manufacturing. Critically, Recon has secured additional funding as an MIT Global IDEAS winner and Harvard Innovation Labs Dean’s Health Life Science Challenge Finalist. They have also established additional working relationships with sterilization facilities, compounding pharmacies, and injection molders. Through Men’s Health Boston, the team spoke with patients and nurses, and was able to perform several rounds of usability and human factors studies.

Their tip for other student innovators:

Always try to do something more with a student project, don’t let it just sit on a shelf.

Yale University, $5,000

Revai Health is a Yale spinout revolutionizing transplants. Our medical devices improve the preservation of donated human organs prior to implantation.

Diabetes is a rapidly growing disease; for many patients, especially those who may not have reliable access to quality healthcare, the disease is currently mismanaged. Rimidi Diabetes has developed a software solution focused on safely managing blood glucose, which allows patients and physicians to identify and close gaps in diabetes management. The company’s product has been shown to increase patient adherence to medical advice from fifty to ninety percent. They participated in the Village Capital-VentureWell HEALTH Boston Accelerator in 2014. VentureWell invested in November 2014. Co-investors include Investors’ Circle, Village Capital, Hitachi, Cox Enterprises, and The JumpFund.

University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, $25,000

Impacted fetal head is a serious complication seen in as many as 25% of all Cesarean section deliveries, yet there is currently no optimal device that mitigates this issue. The Safe-C Pump is a user friendly device that will safely and quickly disimpact the fetal head during Cesarean section while improving maternal and fetal outcomes.

Grand Valley State University, $5,000

SafetySit is a medical device that will speed up the recovery process for patients during the early stages of mobilization therapy, therefore saving hospitals millions of dollars.

Tulane University, $5,000

Pressure ulcers cost the US healthcare system $11 billion annually. Current prevention methods are ineffective. Sensifoam, created by Nisoltus Medical LLC, is a smart adhesive patch that monitors pressure at the interface of the pressure-point and the skin. This offers the chance for a new standard of care in which caretakers can be cognizant of patient wellbeing and monitor risk in real time.

Johns Hopkins University, $25,000

Each year, hundreds of thousands of patients undergo surgeries in which arteries and veins are joined together. These surgeries save lives, yet often result in failure because the vessels break down in the immediate post-surgical period. Sonavex’s EchoSure detects post-operative complications as they arise, giving surgeons the chance to take corrective action promptly.

http://www.sonavex.com

Approximately 70% of patients with spinal deformities who undergo complex and intensive surgeries to improve their quality of life remain malaligned. Spine Align developed a medical device that provides spine surgeons with real-time feedback and minimal workflow disruption during spinal corrective or alignment surgeries. Initial benchtop testing of the device has been completed successfully, and the company is now conducting cadaveric testing and demonstrations with key opinion leaders. The team from Johns Hopkins University participated in the E-Team program in 2018 and 2019, and ASPIRE for MedTech Salt Lake City in 2019. VentureWell invested in Spine Align in July 2020 in a seed round led by Rockies Venture Club.