2016 Innovation Competition (Boston, MA)

Diagnostic that reduces the number of unnecessary heart valve replacement reoperations

Concept or business name.
BioImag
Elevator Pitch
For pediatric heart valve replacement patients there is a 13% one-year mortality rate, a 60% reoperation rate within 25 years, and the cost of surgery exceeds $160,000. Mechanical and biological valves are the current standards of care. Mechanical valves do not work well for pediatric patients due to their fixed size. Biological valves need to be replaced after 10-15 years. Luckily, regenerative valves are being developed. These breakthrough valves regenerate naturally and grow with the patient. They are a major step forward in patient care, or would be except that we are currently unable to determine if they are regenerating, effectively making them a stepwise improvement over biological valves instead of a game changing technology. As the recipients of regenerative valves age, many will experience unnecessary reoperations on valves that are functioning properly. We have solved this problem with our magnetically functionalized collagen, which is an engineered biomaterial produced by combining tissue engineering with nanomagnetism. It allows non-invasive detection of the enzymes responsible for valve regeneration. Our collagen is able to detect potential issues years in advance of a serious incident and will enable doctors to limit reoperations to valves that are not functioning properly, eliminating unnecessary valve reoperations. By reducing these reoperations, we will decrease the patient mortality rate while creating a cost saving up to $90,000 per patient for payers.
Contact Us
Website: BioImag.com Email: Contact@BioImag.com