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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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Pediatric device development is an exciting area of innovation that traverses academic and commercial settings. However, it does not come without its own unique challenges and obstacles. In this upcoming Pediatric Tech Talk webinar, Wilbur Lam, MD, PhD will share with attendees his experiences in the field of pediatric device development as a co-founder of two such startup companies, Cellscope and Sanguina.
Dr. Lam is a biomedical engineer at Emory and Georgia Tech and a clinical pediatric hematologist/oncologist at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. His research involves developing and translating innovative micro-engineered and mHealth technologies to advance research and improve the health of children, especially those with blood diseases. One of the more recent innovations that Dr. Lam helped develop is the app AnemoCheck, which allows patients that are suspected of suffering from low blood levels of hemoglobin to test their levels by using photos of their fingernails instead of having to draw blood.
Dr. Lam was the principal investigator for the Atlanta Center for Microsystems Engineering Point-Of-Care Technologies’ Pediatric Device Consortium and received the 2019 Frank A. Oski Memorial Lectureship at the American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Conference. He was also awarded the Emerging Investigator Award from the NIH, worth $5 million over the next seven years.
Those who attend this webinar will learn more about the opportunities and challenges of developing and translating biomedical technologies for commercialization in an academic setting, with a focus on pediatric and diagnostic spaces.
There are various barriers to pediatric device development, ranging from the small numbers of geographically dispersed pediatric patients with a given medical condition to the lack of an overarching entity that can make determinations about the coverage and reimbursement of pediatric medical devices. By sharing his vast experience in the area, Dr. Lam hopes to help innovators better navigate this sometimes difficult and unpredictable development process.
This webinar will be highly relevant to both researchers and students of pediatric medicine who are interested in clinically translating their inventions or in forming university-borne startups.