DesignWise Medical is a nonprofit pediatric medical device organization focused on developing solutions to children’s unmet medical needs. Through the sustained involvement of pediatric clinicians, parents, sponsors, volunteers and students we are able to identify, create and deliver collaborative solutions to an underserved population.

Impact:

Investment dollars and development of medical devices for the pediatric market go unexplored due to poor return on investments even though the technology and the resources exist to solve these clinical problems. By creating a new model that leverages and solicits existing intellectual know-how to cost effectively develop medical devices; DesignWise Medical is able to develop products that are often ignored due to limited market size.

Background:

The pediatric medical device market is approximately only 1/10th as large as the adult medical device market. Therefore each product opportunity or need that exists in pediatrics is at most only 10% of a similar market for adults and when you factor in the market fragmentation due to the many diseases and developmental phases within pediatrics, any one pediatric opportunity can be very much smaller than any adult opportunity. With the market size of the pediatric opportunities less than the adult opportunities, a higher percentage of pediatric devices never get developed. It is these unmet needs that DesignWise Medical has been setup to address by removing the need to show a financial return on investment. The only thing we are requiring is a social return on our non-profit investment. This social return takes the form of improved outcomes for children through the use of products we developed over the currently available products/methods in use. If the product affects a small number of children or a large number of children it will receive the same level of attention and diligence from DesignWise Medical. What is important is the social-story, not the financial story.

Note from CEO:

DesignWise Medical's extensive network of friends and volunteers is what makes us unique in our approach to assembling the necessary resources around the development of needed medical devices for children. We are currently a 100% volunteer organization and in the first 36 months of existence have initiated the detailed development of six distinct medical devices that will have an easily recognizable social return on investment...i.e. improved clinical situation for effected children. It is this ability that is driven by the passionate involvement of our resources that will help ensure that we are able to make a positive difference in the lives of children.

Brad Slaker