Drug delivery system takes top prize in NEOvations Bench to Bedside Competition

Student teams from NEOMED and other Ohio universities demonstrated their medical technologies at the NEOvations Bench to Bedside Competition, held Sept. 21 in the Jay A. Gershen Atrium. A total of 14 teams presented their work to a panel of judges, with six of those being “legacy” teams that continued their work in the Bench to Bedside program for a second or third year.

The NEOvations Bench to Bedside program offers students the opportunity to interact closely with mentors, such as physicians, health care providers, clinical partners and industry leaders, to identify a patient’s need at the bedside and aid in their search for a medical solution.

The program goes far beyond encouraging students to conceptualize their ideas for medical technology. Rather, it pairs them with professionals such as attorneys, investors and a variety of health care professionals to learn the entire bench-to-bedside process.

Keynote speaker Jessica Sublett, J.D., CEO of Bounce Innovation Hub in Akron, shared her career journey and how she came to play a role in the innovation ecosystem in Northeast Ohio.

“Not all career paths are linear,” she said, noting that her career goal when entering college was to be a horse trainer. She eventually leaned into business administration, went to law school and gained certification in intellectual property, before landing at Bounce, which she called the “connector general.”

AWARDEES

The 2023 NEOvations Bench to Bedside awardees are:

First place: GaAcAc-loaded hydrogel (GaMH), a drug-delivery system to combat resorptive disorders (The team: Pratyusha Ghanta, Kent State University/NEOMED, Evin Hessel, NEOMED, and Moses Oyewumi, Ph.D., NEOMED) $10,000

Second place: Pelorus Health, a pediatric diabetes management system (The team: Angelina Atieh, Anjali Prabhakaran and Chase Fensore, Ohio State University) $5,000

Third place: MagWire, a solution designed to mitigate the potential risk of retained guidewires during central line procedures (The team: Adam Ghazoul, Bryce Pember, Jared Hinton, Sonam Patel, NEOMED, and Daniel Vazquez, M.D., Cleveland Clinic Akron General) $3,000

People’s choice award (team with the most votes from event guests): Air-O-Matic Mattress, a design to prevent pressure ulcers (The team: Antonio Nestico and Rama Safadi, Kent State University, Mark Morkos, University of Akron, and Daniel Vazquez, M.D., Cleveland Clinic Akron General) $1,000

Legacy winner: Stucky Ducky, a nasogastric tube securement device for pediatric patients (The team: Parker Kim, NEOMED, and Janice McDaniel, M.D., Akron Children’s Hospital) $5,000