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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowA new effort involving Purdue University, the Indiana University School of Medicine, and medical device company Cook Medical is aiming to accelerate the development of innovative medical devices for children.
The Crossroads Pediatric Device Consortium will work to bridge the unique challenges of developing devices for pediatric patients and devote more attention to the unmet need.
“Infants and children are not scaled-down versions of adults,” George Wodicka, a Purdue professor of biomedical engineering at Purdue, said in written remarks. “They have different diseases and clinical problems, so the research and development of pediatric devices is a distinct undertaking with a unique set of challenges.”
Purdue will provide expertise in engineering research, while the IU School of Medicine will provide knowledge in pediatrics research and clinical care. Cook Medical will provide input on product design, regulatory approval, and manufacturing.
“There is a huge need and opportunity to develop more options for pediatric care,” said Blayne Roeder, senior director, corporate development at Cook Medical. “With expertise from all three organizations, we have more resources and more bright minds to innovate new technologies for this underserved patient population.”
Roeder noted that less than 12% of the National Institutes for Health budget funds pediatric research and that less than 10% of all health spending is for pediatrics.
Consortium members said their effort already has attracted interest from additional clinical and company partners that could further increase the breadth of childhood diseases that could be addressed.
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