Children's National, NCC-PDI hold medical device competition for COVID-19 innovations

In response to medical data highlighting the serious impact of COVID-19 on children’s health, Children's National is partnering with the National Capital Consortium for Pediatric Device Innovation (NCC-PDI) on a special pitch competition focused on COVID-19 related pediatric medical devices. “Make your Medical Device Pitch for Kids! - COVID-19 edition” is seeking devices that support home health monitoring and telehealth and improve sustainability, resiliency, and readiness in diagnosing and treating children during a pandemic.

Submissions for the competition are being accepted now through July 6. The competition is led by NCC-PDI co-founders 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 and powered by nonprofit accelerator and NCC-PDI member, MedTech Innovator. The finals in the virtual pitch event will be held on July 20, 2020. Winners will each receive a grant award of up to $50,000. 

“Despite early reports that COVID-19 posed less of a threat to children, a recent study published by Children’s National shows that considerable numbers of pediatric patients are hospitalized and become critically ill from the disease,” says Kolaleh Eskandanian, Ph.D., MBA, PMP, vice president and chief innovation officer at Children’s National Hospital and principal investigator of NCC-PDI. “Innovation in children’s medical devices consistently lags behind that of adults and we need to change that if we are to confront the challenge to children’s health of COVID-19 and future pandemics.”

Along with grant funding, one company from the competition will be selected by Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JLABS to receive a one-year residency at JLABS @ Washington, DC, which will be located on the new Children’s National Research and Innovation Campus currently under construction. In addition to the 2021 JLABS residency, the awardee will have access to the JLABS community and expert mentoring by the Johnson & Johnson family of companies. “We believe that supporting the community of innovators and entrepreneurs across the DC metropolitan area can foster new ideas and advance potential critical breakthroughs for children, so critical in the time of COVID-19 and beyond,” says Sally Allain, head of JLABS @ Washington, DC.

The competition is made possible by a grant from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and a philanthropic gift from Mei Xu, founder of e-commerce platform Yes She May, a site dedicated to women-owned brands. 

Complete contest and submission details can be found here.