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Three research teams from Children's Hospital Boston have been awarded grants from CIMIT (the Center for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology), a nonprofit consortium of Boston area teaching hospitals and engineering schools that provides support to early-stage medical device researchers.
Simon Warfield, PhD, of Children's Department of Radiology, was awarded a grant to develop a system that can more accurately locate brain lesions in patients suffering from epilepsy, helping doctors better prepare for surgery and improve the precision of operations. The brain imaging technology, called Bayesian Source Imaging, will assess data from EEG and MRI machines to detect electrical and structural abnormalities. This is Warfield's third grant from CIMIT since 2001.
Adam Wolfberg, MD, MPH, of Children's Department of Neurology, received funding to develop a non-invasive fetal monitor that uses sensors to record a fetus's heart rate and detects EKG patterns that signal intra-uterine infection. Placed on a mother's abdomen, these sensors will be less obtrusive than traditional monitoring equipment, but more reliable, according to Wolfberg.
Joseph Madsen, MD, of the Department of Neurosurgery, won a grant to develop a device that can non-invasively measure pressure inside the skull (intracranial pressure, or ICP) in patients with conditions such as hydrocephalus, head injury and subarachnoid hemorrhage. Today, surgeons typically gauge ICP by inserting a tube through the skull into a ventricle of the brain. Madsen's technique would avoid surgery; instead, electrodes on the scalp would monitor brainwaves in the presence of a strong magnet to detect changes in ICP. Madsen hopes such a device could be portable, making it a valuable tool for emergency medical technicians or in battlefield situations.
"Researchers from the hospital developed strong proposals," said Donald Ingber, MD, PhD, who serves as a liaison at Children's Hospital Boston for CIMIT. "A key goal of CIMIT's is to develop innovative technology that can help patients. And many of these research projects definitely have the potential to improve health care."
Founded in 1998, CIMIT this year funded 37 projects from a pool of 100 proposals.
Past CIMIT winners from Children's Hospital Boston include: Martha Murray, MD (Orthopedic Surgery), for enhanced arthroscopic repair of knee injuries; Adre du Plessis, MD (Neurology), for a bedside cerebrovascular monitor that identifies premature infants at risk for brain injury; Dario Fauza, MD (Surgery), for optical and software technology in fetal endoscopy; John Mayer, MD (Cardiovascular Surgery), for tissue engineering of pulmonary valves for congenital heart disease; and Frank A. Pigula, MD (Cardiac Surgery), for in utero treatment of congenital heart block.
Contact:
Anna Gonski
617-355-6420
anna.gonski@childrens.harvard.edu
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