Our Initiatives
Reproductive and Fetal Health Challenges
About
Develop and manage competitive challenges to incentivize the creation of technologies to advance progress on fetal and reproductive health, nationally and internationally.
Overview
Building upon the success of RADx® Tech in rapidly delivering billions of COVID-19 tests to market, the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) partnered with Cimit to launch a series of challenges to accelerate the development of new technologies to help advance progress on reproductive and fetal health.
Cimit has played a central role in these challenges by:
- co-designing the innovation process and workflow.
- soliciting proposals.
- managing the proposal review process.
- providing experts with significant industry, regulatory, and manufacturing experience to serve as mentors to teams.
- recommending the highest-potential projects to NIH and its partners to be considered for prizes.
Among the healthcare technologies under development are:
- Fetal monitoring tests to reduce fetal morbidity and mortality and improve fetal and neonatal health outcomes.
- Technologies to improve maternal health outcomes for those living in areas lacking access to maternity care.
- Technologies that advance cures and therapies and end endometriosis diagnostic delays.
Core Leads
Michael Dempsey
Subprojects Core Lead for CINTA; Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Consultant Innovator, Cimit
Title or headline here
Description etc here
Penny Ford-Carleton, RN, MS, MPA, MSC
Description etc here
Title or headline here
Description etc here
CINTA Staff
John Collins, PhD
Director Innovation Platforms, Cimit and CINTA
John Collins, PhD
Director Innovation Platforms, Cimit and CINTA
John Collins, PhD
Director Innovation Platforms, Cimit and CINTA
John Collins, PhD
Director Innovation Platforms, Cimit and CINTA
John Collins, PhD
Director Innovation Platforms, Cimit and CINTA
John Collins, PhD
Director Innovation Platforms, Cimit and CINTA
John Collins, PhD
Director Innovation Platforms, Cimit and CINTA
John Collins, PhD
Director Innovation Platforms, Cimit and CINTA
John Collins, PhD
Director Innovation Platforms, Cimit and CINTA
John Collins, PhD
Director Innovation Platforms, Cimit and CINTA
John Collins, PhD
Director Innovation Platforms, Cimit and CINTA
John Collins, PhD
Director Innovation Platforms, Cimit and CINTA
Challenge
Each year, there are 2 million stillbirths globally, 40 percent of which occur after the onset of labor. The majority of these stillbirths could be prevented with better quality care during childbirth.
In addition, largely preventable maternal deaths due to complications from pregnancy or childbirth are on the rise both nationally and internationally. 94 percent occur in low- and middle-income countries.
Finally, endometriosis is one of the most common gynecological diseases, but it can take up to 10 years for a diagnosis and currently, there is no cure. Given this, the challenge is to:
- Accelerate the development of technologies to diagnose, monitor, and treat fetal and reproductive health that are effective in low-resource regions of the world.
Impact
Projects are in various stages of development.
Activities
RADx® Tech Maternal Health Challenge: In October 2024, NIH awarded six finalists, each receiving $525,000, and two runners-up, each receiving $300,000. Eight million dollars in total, including interim funding to project teams, were disseminated. Winners:
- Continuous, wearable monitor for cardiovascular health (Cardiex, Naperville, Illinois)
- Wireless wrist monitors to evaluate cardiovascular health (Caretaker Medical, Charlottesville, Virginia)
- Rapid, point-of-care diagnostic for postpartum hemorrhage (HemoSonics, Durham, North Carolina)
- Rapid home test for urinary tract infections (Global Access Diagnostics, New Gloucester, Maine)
- Smartphone app to detect anemia in pregnancy and postpartum anemia (Sanguina, Peachtree Corners, Georgia)
- Remote monitoring system for home or point-of-care settings (Sibel Health, Niles, Illinois)
More information on projects can be found on the NIH’s website.
RADx® Tech Fetal Monitoring Challenge: NIH disseminated three top awards and three runner-up honors awards in October 2024. Including interim prizes during the challenge, 2 million dollars were awarded. Top Prizes:
- First Place, $750,000: Lumerah: a transabdominal fetal pulse oximeter (Raydiant Oximetry, San Ramon, California)
- Second Place, $400,000: Deep learning model for detection of congenital heart disease (NextGen Dx, University of California, San Francisco, California)
- Third Place, $200,000: wearable ultrasound patch (Softsonics, San Diego, California)
More information on projects can be found on the NIH’s website.
RADx® Tech ACT ENDO Challenge: Three million dollars in funding will be disseminated, and awards will be made in December 2024.