Instant "Point-of-Care" Testing for Viral Infections Wins $150,000 in the 2011 CIMIT Primary Healthcare Prize for Engineering Students

Date: 7/23/2011
Contact: cimitprize@partners.org

BOSTON–Imagine finding out before you leave the physician's office whether you have a viral infection, and more specifically, which of several viruses it is. Rapid and specific diagnosis could reduce unnecessary antibiotic or antiviral usage while also flagging occurrences of those viral infections requiring special precautions and treatment. A graduate-student team led by George Daaboul, a PhD candidate at Boston University, has been chosen to receive the top honor in this year’s Primary Healthcare Prize competition for their work on fulfilling that goal.

In announcing the winners of the 2011 CIMIT Prize for Primary Healthcare, Ronald Newbower, Co-Founder of CIMIT and Director of this competition, remarked, "We are delighted with the quality of the entries this Prize competition has elicited each year amongst engineering students. They are clearly eager to develop innovative technologies to address our national challenges in primary care. The winners of our major awards are headed toward truly significant careers and may well serve as role models for others in their field. CIMIT is proud to be able to support their efforts."

First Place Winner: George Daaboul, Boston University

Collaborators: Rahul Vedula, Abdulkadir Yurt & Xirui Zhang, Boston University

A graduate-student team led by George Daaboul, a PhD candidate at Boston University, has been chosen to receive the top honor in this year’s Primary Healthcare Prize competition. Their project involves a promising technology for highly sensitive and specific viral detection in a simple, easy-to-use and affordable device. Their reward is $150,000 to support their further work in developing this novel technology, with its potential for facilitating more effective and efficient primary care.

Second Place Winner: Elliot Swart, Yale University

Collaborators: Nickolas Demas & Elizabeth Asai, Yale University

Second place and $100,000 is awarded to an undergraduate-student team at Yale led by Elliot Swart. Their project utilizes innovative 3-D optical technology to ease and speed the assessment of potentially malignant melanocytic nevi (moles on the skin). Easy assessment in the primary-care setting can be expected to increase the screening and early detection of malignancies such as melanoma, and thus contribute to improved outcome.

Third Place Winner: Melodie Benford, Texas A&M University

Third place and $50,000 goes to Melodie Benford, a PhD candidate at Texas A&M University, who is leading work on a compact and portable device for use in the ambulatory setting and in ambulances for the quick detection of biomarkers indicative of a myocardial infarction. More rapid assessment of developing heart attacks is key to proper treatment and improved outcomes.

The Competition

This annual national Primary Care Prize competition is open to graduate and undergraduate engineering students from accredited engineering programs. In particular, the Prize offers the next generation of visionary engineers a unique opportunity to leverage innovative technologies in a patient-centric way.

Generally speaking, the term “primary care” includes the activities of healthcare providers (physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses, pharmacists, etc.) who act as the first point of consultation for patients. It involves the widest scope of healthcare including all ages of patients and all socioeconomic and geographic origins. Prevention, as well as promotion of wellness, is of increasing importance in primary care, as it deals with patients seeking to maintain optimal health as well as those with acute conditions or chronic diseases. It is the domain where health problems are best identified, managed or referred in terms of early intervention, better outcomes and lower ultimate cost. Needed care may be delivered in a variety of settings, including, but not limited to, clinicians offices, clinics, inpatient units, long-term care facilities, or the patients’ homes or workplaces.

Ten Finalists and Collaborators

This year’s competition began in February, 2011, with ten finalists chosen from a broad national portfolio of preliminary entries. Each finalist team received $10,000 to assist in the preparation of a full entry due in June. The three top winners just announced here were chosen from the following Finalists:

Brian Bell Jr., Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Collaborators: Steve Xu and Michael Simoni, Harvard Medical School
Title: “GetWell: Innovative web-based tool to address health literacy"

Pablo Bello, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Collaborators: Carson Darling and Thomas Lipoma, MIT
Title: “Somnus - Sleep Diagnostics Shirt”

Melodie Benford, Texas A&M University, Third Prize Winner
Title: “An Innovative Point-of-Care Blood Biomarker Device for Diagnosing Heart Attacks"

Yoonju Cho, Johns Hopkins University
Collaborators: Vikram Aggarwal, Mohsen Mollazadeh and Abhishek Rege, Johns Hopkins University
Title: “Noninvasive Measurement of Central Venous Pressure for Primary Care Environments”

George Daaboul, Boston University, First Prize Winner
Collaborators: Rahul Vedula, Abdulkadir Yurt & Xirui Zhang, Boston University
Title: “Rapid Label Free Multi-pathogen Diagnostic Platform with Multi-Parameter Single Virus Detection for Point of Care Setting”

Matt Dubach, Northeastern University
Collaborator: Kate Balaconis, Northeastern University
Title: “Lighting up Diagnostics: Continuous Monitoring of Electrolyte Imbalances"

Kejia Li, Kansas State University
Title: “Everyday Carry Wireless Health Monitor with Customizable Surface Components”

Asanterabi Malima, Northeastern University
Collaborators: Jaydev Upponi and Cihan Yilmaz, Northeastern University
Title: “Highly Sensitive Micron Scale In-vivo Biosensor for Multiple Biomarker Detection”

Elliot Swart, Yale University, Second Prize Winner
Collaborators: Nickolas Demas and Elizabeth Asai, Yale University
Title: “Low Cost Scanner for Monitoring Shape, Color, and Volume Characteristics of Melanocytic Nevi”

John Waldeisen, University of California, Berkeley
Collaborator: Benjamin Ross, University of California, Berkeley
Title: “Self-powered Blood Coagulation Chip for INR Value and Hematocrit Determination”

Support

Each year, this unique competition awards $400,000 in prizes to the most innovative of submitted projects. With these 2011 awards, the portfolio of student-led primary-care projects supported by Prize money over three years has expanded to thirty, with a total of $1,200,000 in awards to date. CIMIT CEO, John A. Parrish, MD stated, “The CIMIT Prize competition seeks to accelerate the pace of change by recognizing and rewarding those innovative, collaborative student-lead teams whose novel approaches have the potential to improve the delivery of care.”

This Prize for Primary Healthcare has been made possible through a generous gift from the Gelfand Family Charitable Trust. “The challenge of delivering affordable excellent primary care presents an opportunity for those students interested in engineering solutions to make truly profound contributions” said Mark Gelfand, a principal in the trust. “I am pleased with the continuing success of this unique competition in driving toward that goal. Innovation in primary care could help many families, and I am confident that much good will result from these inspiring projects.”

More Information

• Additional information about CIMIT and the Prize, as well as on past winners.
• Subscribe to our CIMIT Prize email list to receive notice of future Requests for Applications and Prize Updates.
• Email cimitprize@partners.org for specific follow-up.

About CIMIT

CIMIT is the Center for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology. A ten-year-old non-profit consortium of Boston-area teaching hospitals and engineering schools, CIMIT provides innovators with resources to explore, develop and implement novel technological solutions for today’s most urgent healthcare problems. Participants in the consortium are Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston Medical Center, Boston University, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Children’s Hospital Boston, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Newton-Wellesley Hospital, Northeastern University, Partners HealthCare and VA Boston Healthcare System.