Massachusetts Institute of Technology, $5,000

Tactile Caliper is a geometric instrument for students with blindness that will measure and draw straight lines with precision. It is a step toward increasing the accessibility of STEM in K-12 grades, allowing blind students be on par with their sighted peers.

Johns Hopkins University, $20,000

Gastric bypass surgery leads to the remission of type II diabetes in up to 98% of patients, but it is invasive. By using key insights from surgery, this team is developing a less invasive method that modulates the GI tract and leads to improvements in blood glucose control and reduces long term complications of the disease.

Johns Hopkins University

2015 BMEidea Second Prize Winner, TREAT Prize Winner

stage 1 E-Team grant winner, $5,000

The team members:

Dr. Soumyadipta Acharya, Graduate Program Director and Assistant Research Professor

Erin Reisfeld, M.S.E. Bioengineering Innovation & Design, 2015

Ian Graham, M.S.E. Bioengineering Innovation & Design, 2015

Melody Tan, M.S.E. Bioengineering Innovation & Design, 2015

Shruthi Rajan, M.S.E. Bioengineering Innovation & Design, 2015

David Blumenstyk, M.S.E. Bioengineering Innovation & Design, 2015

Summary of problem & solution:

Tremtex is working in conjunction with clinical and research partners at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine to develop an intervention to help Parkinson’s disease patients manage their debilitating motor symptoms. Parkinson’s disease is an incurable, neurodegenerative disorder that affects over 1 million people in the United States and 7 million people worldwide. The standard of care for Parkinson’s disease is medication; however, the effectiveness of medication wanes as the disease progresses. Another option for patients in advanced stages of the disease is deep brain stimulation, an expensive and invasive surgical procedure with strict eligibility criteria. This leaves a significant number of patients without an effective intervention. Tremtex is addressing this gap by providing a low-risk solution for patients whose symptoms are under-managed with existing interventions. The team has designed, STIMband, a non-invasive electrical stimulation device, which delivers low and safe doses of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), to the motor cortices of the brain. The result is the reduction of motor symptoms, including tremors, and improved mobility. STIMband has been designed to ensure patient safety and usability, allowing patients to receive treatment within the comfort of their homes.

Patients often miss preventative or follow-up appointments due to cost, the inconvenience of travel, and time intensity. Therefore, their conditions worsen until an emergency room is needed, resulting in expensive, avoidable healthcare costs. TruClinic provides a universal telemedicine platform for patients to set up secure video conferences with healthcare providers to avoid unnecessary in-person visits and their associated costs. TruClinic was acquired by InTouchHealth in 2018, which was then subsequently acquired by TelaDoc in 2020. TruClinic participated in the Village Capital-VentureWell HEALTH Boston accelerator in 2014. VentureWell invested in March 2015. Hitachi, Village Capital, and Investors’ Circle were some of the original co-investors.

Northwestern University, $25,000

UroProx is an innovative stent that employs a proximity sensing system to help surgeons more precisely localize and avoid the ureter during surgery.

UroProx homepage

University of Minnesota, $5,000

Beyond aesthetic concerns, varicose veins signal underlying problems, including greater risk of developing pain, skin ulceration, infection, and venous thrombosis. Current noninvasive treatments for varicose veins include compression garments and external pumps, while invasive methods include laser ablation and vein stripping. This team is developing a low-cost, lightweight, wireless compression garment that uses vibrations to create better blood flow along a patient’s legs, preventing varicose veins from worsening. The device works by transmitting vibrations along a ribcage-like structure, applying mechanical energy to the lower leg and enhancing blood-flow.

University of Colorado Denver, $5,000

Rescue helicopters often need to use a hoisting system to get victims into the helicopter. During this process, injuries and unsuccessful missions can occur due to the chaotic pendulum motion when lowering the hoisting cable. This E-Team has designed a pendulum control mechanism to minimize the swinging motion, therefore decreasing injuries and increasing the survival rate of missions.

Johns Hopkins University, $5,000

This team is developing AccuSpine, a new probe that will allow surgeons to more accurately place pedicle screws during spinal fusion procedures.

http://whitelightmedical.com

Arizona State University at the Tempe Campus, $20,000

Clinical treatment of bacterial infections, especially in acute cases of sepsis and urinary tract infections, requires antibiotic susceptibility tests. These tests diagnose antibiotic resistance bacteria to determine the appropriate antibiotic regimen and currently take several days to complete. This long time-frame poses a risk to a patient’s life and morbidity. The Zero2One team has developed a new imaging and tracking method to perform real-time, point-of-care, and automated antibiotic susceptibility testing, which will improve clinical diagnostics, reduce healthcare costs and save lives.