PF Innovation Challenge finalists chosen from applicant pool across 36 cities; 10 countries

MATTER, Three Lakes Foundation and the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation today announced the finalists for the 2020 Pulmonary Fibrosis (PF) Innovation Challenge. Selected from a global pool of nearly 50 submissions, each team submitted a solution that can help improve disease awareness, time to diagnosis or care to benefit people living with PF, their caregivers and healthcare providers.

Next up for the finalists is a 6-week virtual incubator where teams will further refine and pressure test their solutions with the help of subject matter experts and stakeholders from the PF community — including corporate leaders at organizations like Abbvie and Cigna, physicians, patients and caregivers.

The program will culminate in a final pitch day on Tuesday, November 17. The winners will be announced on Tuesday, November 19 where four winning solutions will receive a total of more than $100,000 in prizes.

Learn more about the finalists:

Diagnostics

Collagen Targeted PET — Boston, MA
Collagen Targeted PET is a novel imaging solution that utilizes a PET probe that binds specifically to type I collagen and is sensitive to active or recent collagen formation.

PhenoMx — New York, NY
PhenoMx is transforming global healthcare delivery by leveraging the full potential of medical imaging. By promoting an upstream, quantitative imaging solution, PhenoMx’s technology can monitor and measure organ-specific, regional or whole-body phenotypic changes to an individual’s body over time.

RecoverX — Menlo Park, CA
RecoverX is an AI company helping clinicians avoid misdiagnosis by bringing evidence-based diagnostic insights automatically to the clinician workflow through their Next-Best-Action DiagnosticsTM platform and Diagnostic GlassTM user interface.

Visionairy Health — Boston, MA
Visionairy Health is commercializing a cloud-based platform for the automated screening of chest x-rays. Their solution triages normal (healthy) images from unhealthy ones; normal images are cleared for the referring physician, abnormal images are flagged and sent to a radiologist for a thorough differential diagnosis.

Therapies

Agitated Solutions — Oakdale, MN
Agitated Solutions is working on an innovative technology platform that provides intravenous delivery of oxygen microbubbles for treatment of patients suffering from acute exacerbation of pulmonary fibrosis.

Respinova — Herzliya, Israel
Respinova’s patented PulsehalerTM technology produces unique multi-frequency, low-pressure pulses that are carried into the lungs, gently prying open closed airways, lowering the viscosity of mucus that could re-plug the airway, and stenting the airway open to allow the airway clearance mechanisms to function properly.

Oxygen

AutO2 — Nashville, TN
AutO2 is developing a smart flow remote control oxygen device to improve patient’s oxygen delivery, therapy compliance and outcomes. Their focus is on removing manual modifications to automate oxygen level adjustments based on a patient’s needs in the exact moment it is needed.

Baltimore Respiratory Solutions (OxyGEN) — Baltimore, MD
OxyGEN is a medtech venture out of Johns Hopkins University working to create more efficient portable oxygen. Their focus is on providing high-flow portable oxygen with automatic adjustment to best address the needs of PF patients.

Care

Aidar — Baltimore, MD
Aidar has developed the MouthLab, a non-invasive, multi-sensor device that measures vital health parameters like oral temperature, blood pressure, respiratory rate, respiratory flow cycle morphology, pulse rate, three-lead electrocardiography, oxygen saturation, heart rate, heart rate variability and lung function and cough in just 30 seconds.

Inofab — Akara, Turkey
Inofab designs and manufactures ultrasonic spirometers for personal and professional use that are used to diagnose and track respiratory diseases. They have also developed smart inhaler sensors to detect misuse and improve patient adherence with DPI & MDI systems.

Perx — Surry Hills, Australia
Perx is a digital therapeutic for treatment plan adherence that engages, empowers and rewards every person living with a chronic condition. The average patient using the Perx program app four to six times per day to manage their treatment, log measurements and complete critical care tasks.

Wellthy — Mumbai, India
Wellthy is a digital therapeutics company with a dynamic proprietary clinical intelligence platform. The Wellthy CareTM platform is built for going deep into a specific therapeutic area, adapting to global and local guidelines and cultures, building out behavioral science relevant to the habits of that patient type. The system then builds the clinical logic necessary to design a digital medicine solution for that specific therapeutic area.

Save the date to hear these companies deliver their final pitches virtually on November 17! More information to follow.