A team of mechanical, electrical and computing engineers, supported by the Director of Cardiac Intensive Care for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, has been named winner of the inaugural GCMI Baby SharQ Tank Pitch Competition for their novel, low cost, wearable pediatric stethoscope.
The interdisciplinary team, including engineers (Dr. Hong Yeo, Dr. Yun-Soung Kim, and Mr. Josh Lee) at Georgia Tech Center for HCIE, a clinician (Dr. Kevin Maher) at CHOA, and a commercialization partner (Dr. Brennan Torstrick) at Huxley Medical, will use the award, mentorship and up to $30,000 in GCMI in-kind services, to execute next steps in the design, development and commercialization pathway.
Specifically, those steps include a close assessment of market potential, IP landscape, regulatory pathway and reimbursement strategy. GCMI will provide the team a detailed “Phase 0” analysis as well as select “Phase 1” deliverables to assist the team in estimating the financial resources and time required to properly develop this new technology.
GCMI received 26 submissions for the competition, six of which advanced to pitch rounds. Candidates were selected based on their ability to best utilize the awarded funds to make an impact on pediatric care with their device while improving the chances of successful commercialization.
Currently available digital stethoscopes are durable but expensive, bulky and heavy for pediatrics, not capable of continuously monitoring sounds and subject to cross contamination. The team’s technology seeks to solve these problems with a small, flexible, wearable device that detects and transmits body sounds with remote and continuous analysis capable of accurately receiving and storing those signals.
We congratulate the team and are eager to put our proven, capital efficient design, development and commercialization process to work for their high-potential technology.
If you would like to know more about how this process works, or more about our services and capabilities, email info@gcmiatl.org.