LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - JUNE 26, 2020 – Amidst the current COVID-19 pandemic, The West Coast Consortium for Technology & Innovation in Pediatrics (CTIP) announced in April the launch of its COVID-19 FlexGrants, a limited grant opportunity with award amounts up to $15,000 to support pediatric medical device innovators who can apply or adapt their existing medical device to help manage the impacts of COVID-19 on children.
All companies who submitted a COVID-19 grant proposal must have met CTIP's minimum criteria to receive support and were evaluated on the following criteria:
“CTIP is thrilled by the response from medtech innovators to the challenge of COVID-19 and iterating for the pediatric population from newborn/neonates to infants to children to adolescents,” said Kathryne Cooper, MBA, CTIP Co-Director.
Ranging from concept to clinical stage, the majority of submissions were in the early/advanced prototype and manufacturing stage with 57.7% of submissions identifying as a Class II device.
Two-thirds of all submissions had a target population aimed towards children ( > 2 - 12 years old) or adolescents ( > 12 through 21 years old) with infection control, diagnostic and pulmonology ranking as the most common of the 19 different pediatric subspecialties reported.
“We are very excited about our 4 awardees; these companies represent technologies across the spectrum of care for patients affected by COVID-19. From molecular diagnostics and respiratory support to remote patient monitoring and mental and emotional health, we believe strongly in the capabilities of these devices to meaningfully impact pediatric care during times of crisis,” said Juan Espinoza, MD, CTIP PI and Director.
CTIP is proud to announce the four winners for the COVID-19 FlexGrants as follows:
For pediatric patients with chronic conditions, such as Asthma and Cancer, who are at risk of developing severe complications due to COVID-19 infections, Aidar Health offers a rapid health assessment device that measures 10+ vital health parameters in just 30 seconds and an AI-enabled real-time triage system, for early detection and efficient management of COVID-19 at home. www.aidar.com
Twitter: @AidarHealth Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AidarHealth/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aidar/ Instagram: @Aidar.Health
Limbix Spark is designed to be a digital therapeutic for treatment of depression in teenagers, and is being evaluated as an intervention during COVID-19 in clinical trials. www.limbix.com
Twitter: @LimbixHealth Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/limbix.inc/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/limbix-health/
Melio is developing a low-cost pathogen testing platform for rapid testing of common pathogens while also monitoring for emerging threats such as SARS-COV-2 for newborns. Melio's goal is to democratize infectious disease testing and accelerate the initiation of timely targeted treatment for all common infections. www.melio.tech
X-Biomedical diverted substantial resources to develop a low-cost, state of the art ICU ventilator, X-Vent, to meet the COVID-19 surge head on. X-Vent has been developed and tested extensively in animals and on the bench per industry standards and is currently under FDA EUA review for patients over 30 kg. However, X-Biomedical will now be able to modify and test the X-Vent for patients below 30kg. www.x-biomedical.com
Twitter: @x_biomedical LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/x-biomedical/