The Philadelphia Pediatric Medical Device Consortium said today it issued 2 seed grants of $50,000 each to 2 medical device companies focused on pediatric care.
The 1st is Bellefonte, Penn.-based Actuated Medical, which is developing a device to reduce insertion force and needle slippage during bone biopsies and bone marrow aspiration procedures in children.
Because of the difference in size and curvature in children’s bones, traditional methods often have high rates of needle slippage and damage to surrounding tissue.
The 2nd company to win seed funding is Austin, Texas-based ENTvantage Diagnostics, which is developing a point-of-care assay device to provide diagnosis of sinusitis in children.
The company is creating the device to reduce the overuse of antibiotics, as no diagnostic tool exists to properly diagnose sinusitis as viral or bacterial, and often children are prescribed antibiotics without a definite diagnosis.
“We are excited to provide these funds to innovators of promising medical devices that will address unmet clinical needs of pediatric patients around the world,” Consortium exec director Matthew Maltese said in prepared remarks.