The National Capital Consortium for Pediatric Device Innovation recently announced five electrophysiology devices that could monitor and treat congenital heart disease and arrhythmia in pediatric patients.
The five winners of the annual NCC-PDI “Make Your Medical Device Pitch for Kids!” competition will share a $150,000 FDA grant to support the advancement of pediatric medical devices.
NCC-PDI partner Medtech Innovator conducted the competition, part of the 9th annual Symposium on Pediatric Device Innovation.
Heart defects are the most common type of congenital disability, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It affects six out of 1,000 babies born in the U.S. each year and is often complicated by arrhythmias. There have been many advances in technologies to care for adult arrhythmias within the last 10 years. Still, pediatrics is slower to innovate, with only five devices approved for children in the same timespan. As a result, pediatric patients are often treated with off-label or improvised devices to treat pediatric arrhythmias.
“Recognizing this unmet need, NCC-PDI opened the challenge earlier this year to select companies to enter Medtech Innovator’s pediatric accelerator program, made possible by NCC-PDI. The five companies have immensely benefited from the accelerator program and are well-positioned to compete for funding. They have the potential to advance pediatric health and provide a greater standard of care for children living with CHD,” Kolaleh Eskandanian, VP and chief innovation officer at Children’s National Hospital and principal investigator of NCC-PDI, said in a news release.
The NCC-PDI competition is led by the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation at Children’s National Hospital and the A. James Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland, with support from partners Medtech Innovator, BioHealth Innovation and design firm Archimedic. All competitors had an opportunity to participate in a year-long accelerator program from Medtech Innovator.
“Pediatric devices are extremely challenging to bring to market, and we’re honored to leverage the world’s leading device ecosystem to ensure that these life-improving innovations successfully reach the children who so desperately need them,” said Medtech Innovator CEO Paul Grand.
Here are the five finalists from this year’s pitch competition.
