WASHINGTON, Sept. 4, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Organizers of the $150K "Make Your Medical Device Pitch for Kids!" competition today announced the 12 finalists who are advancing to the live pitch component of the competition scheduled for Sept. 22 during the 7^th Annual Pediatric Device Innovation Symposium hosted by Children's National Health System. The pitch competition, sponsored by the National Capital Consortium for Pediatric Device Innovation (NCC-PDI), focuses on Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) innovations, a pediatric subspecialty that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) identifies as having a significant unmet need for medical devices.

One of five FDA-funded grant programs focused on addressing these unmet needs, NCC-PDI is led by the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation at Children's National Health System and the A. James Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland. Last year, NCC-PDI added new accelerators BioHealth Innovation and MedTech Innovator and design firm partner, Archimedic.

"All of the companies that entered the competition are remarkable, but these finalists impressed us the most because of how their innovative medical devices solve a clinical challenge in the NICU and the feasibility of accelerating their commercialization process," says Kolaleh Eskandanian, Ph.D., MBA, PMP, vice president and chief innovation officer at Children's National and principal investigator of NCC-PDI. "One in 10 babies is born prematurely, making NICU innovation an area where we can positively impact outcomes for a significant number of patients, so we want to support developers with funding, mentorship and regulatory guidance."

The competition is one of many highlights that attendees can expect at the 7^th Annual Pediatric Device Innovation Symposium, which co-locates with The MedTech Conference in Boston. The one-day, information-packed gathering of stakeholders from industry, government, academia and patient groups will begin with an opening keynote address from Melinda Richter, Global Head of Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JLABS, a network of life science incubators designed to foster new ideas to transform healthcare for all, including the very youngest of patients.