ABOUT IDEA INCUBATOR
IDea Incubator is a “Shark Tank”-style competition designed to encourage early-stage ventures of original inventions, products or concepts for improving ID care. Finalists share their concepts with the ID community and judges in the fields of business, medicine, technology and the pharmaceutical industry each year during IDWeek.
Competition Rules:
- IDea Incubator is open to both IDSA members and nonmembers.
- Any group, company or organization that applies must have at least one IDWeek 2024 attendee. This attendee must be the primary submitter and may be a scientific attendee, exhibitor, invited speaker or guest.
- All applications will be reviewed by committee to choose the category winners.
- Category winners will be asked to create a pitch video for the People’s Choice award-winning idea and to present their innovation at the IDea Incubator live event at IDWeek 2024.
Awards:
- Each individual category winner will receive a cash prize of $10,000. This award is determined by the IDea Incubator review panel.
- The Innovator of the Year award winner will receive a cash prize of $5,000 as well as an accelerator package with access to startup coaching that will provide guidance for launching or scaling the innovation, setting up legal protections, budgeting and marketing. This award is determined by the judging panel at the live IDea Incubator award event at IDWeek 2024.
- The People’s Choice award will be awarded to the video with the most popular votes; this award winner will receive an award as well as additional promotion of the award through IDSA communication channels. This award is determined by the most votes received for the pitch videos.
The IDea Incubator provides the opportunity for all applicants to receive feedback from judges in the business, technology and medicine industries and gives category winners the opportunity to present their idea in front of the ID community at IDWeek 2024.
The IDSA Foundation and its affiliates are not responsible for any intellectual property submitted and/or presented through the IDea Incubator. Any individual, group, organization or company is solely responsible for securing intellectual property protection.
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Sponsors
Important Dates
- June 30, 2024: Applications close
- July 15, 2024: All applicants are notified of award decisions
- Aug. 1-Sept. 1, 2024: Pitch video development
- Oct. 16-19, 2024: IDWeek in Los Angeles, CA
SECURING YOUR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
The following articles may assist with securing intellectual property. Many other sources are available on the internet:
- “How to Protect Your Product or Idea When Pitching It to a Company.” The Wall Street Journal, 3 September 2008, http://guides.wsj.com/small-business/running-a-business/how-to-protect-your-product-or-idea-when-pitching-it-to-a-company/
- Fitzsimmons, Kelly. “10 Ways to Protect Your Intellectual Property.” Inc., 19 September 2012, https://www.inc.com/kelly-fitzsimmons/ten-ways-to-protect-your-intellectual-property.html
Awards Categories
AWARDEES
Jimmy Bak
Leonard Mermel, DO, ScM, AM (Hon)
1st place: UV LIGHT GUIDES TO REDUCE THE BIOBURDEN OF ENDOSCOPE LUMINAL CHANNELS
Leonard Mermel, DO, ScM, AM (Hon), and Jimmy Bak were awarded the grand prize for their innovation using UV light guides to reduce the bioburden of endoscope luminal channels. Their reusable light guides provide a higher level of disinfecting than current FDA-approved methods.
Juan Walterspiel, MD, FAAP
2nd place: IV VALVE CONNECTOR SHIELD TO FIGHT AGAINST CENTRAL LINE-ASSOCIATED BLOODSTREAM INFECTIONS
Juan Walterspiel, MD, FAAP, received second place for his IV valve connector shield to fight against central line-associated bloodstream infections. Dr. Walterspiel’s simple innovation addresses safety features currently not in use and could reduce the 23% of IV connectors that are contaminated.
Rachel Rivera, MD
3rd place: PREP DISPENSING MACHINE AND APP
Rachel Rivera, MD, went home with the third-place prize for her PrEP dispensing machine and app. Her innovation, similar to a vending machine, would help expand access to PrEP in communities and connect patients with local providers.
Sanjay Jain, MD
Filipa Mota, PhD
Alvaro Ordonez, MD
1st place: Molecular imaging of bacterial infections
Sanjay Jain, MD, Filipa Mota, PhD, and Alvaro Ordonez, MD, of Johns Hopkins University took home the grand prize for their innovation Molecular Imaging of Bacterial Infections. The team developed F-FDS, a patent-pending, bacteria-specific PET imaging technology that differentiates Gram-negative bacterial infections from other diseases, such as cancer metastases and tumors. Unlike more traditional approaches for diagnosing infections, F-FDS does not require surgery or biopsy, it has nearly 100% specificity, and it can detect infections anywhere in the body with rapid results available within the same day. READ MORE
Sofia Mavrikou, PhD
Spyridon Kintzios, PhD
Kyriaki Hatziagapiou, MD, PhD
2nd place: Cell-Based Bio-Electric Biosensor for the Detection of the SARS-CoV-2 S1 Spike Protein Antigen
Kyriaki Hatziagapiou, MD, PhD, Spyridon Kintzios, PhD, and Sofia Mavrikou, PhD, received second place for their innovation Cell-Based Bio-Electric Biosensor for the Detection of the SARS-CoV-2 S1 Spike Protein Antigen. The team developed a low-cost, easy-to-use test that uses bioelectric recognition assay technology to provide a fast and accurate diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 and other respiratory pathogens with results provided within three minutes.
Josh Odrich
David Kaufman, MD
3rd place: Neonatal Antibiotic Stewardship App (NASA)
David Kaufman, MD, and Josh Odrich, both from the University of Virginia, received third place for the Neonatal Antibiotic Stewardship App (NASA). The free web-based app offers 24/7 evidence-based guidance for neonatal providers to stop or narrow the spectrum of antibiotics that are prescribed in neonatal intensive care units with the hopes of reducing infants’ risks for lifelong adverse effects.
Holly Frost, MD
Sonal Munsiff, MD
1st place: Outpatient Automated Stewardship Information System (OASIS)
Doctors Frost and Munsiff were awarded the 2020 grand prize for OASIS, which will help health care systems implement the CDC Core Elements of Outpatient Antibiotic Stewardship in a cost-effective manner that requires substantially less time than traditional methods. READ MORE
Farrukh Jafri, MD
Taylor Freeman
2nd place: PPE VR Training Simulator
Dr. Farrukh Jafri and entrepreneur Taylor Freeman received the second-place award for their virtual reality program to train people how to properly don and doff PPE.
Vidya Atluri, MD, PhD
Lahari Rampur, MD
Paul Pottinger, MD, DTMH, FACP, FIDSA
1st Place
Awarded the grand prize for the OPAT monitoring device were Sai Dodda, Pharm.D., clinical coordinator, and Chris Sleckman, M.S., engineer, both of HIVE, a student-run biotech startup at Washington University in St. Louis.
The winning innovation is a sensor that detects when IV medication is connected to a patient’s peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC) line, meaning the patient is beginning therapy. The data is then sent in real time to the patient’s doctor and home health agency to help them monitor use and intervene when patients aren’t compliant.
Additionally, health care providers are alerted if the medication is not administered at the correct time. Because OPAT is significantly less costly than in-hospital therapy, the researchers estimate the device would prevent $2,000 in costs for every day of hospital readmission avoided. READ MORE
2nd Place
Mark Sendak, M.D., MPP, of Duke Institute for Health Innovation and Cara O’Brien, M.D., of Duke University, were awarded second place for Sepsis Watch, a software model that predicts sepsis within four hours of a patient being admitted to the emergency department to ensure timely delivery of treatment. It is being used in several hospitals and preliminary research has shown a 15% improvement in 3-hour sepsis treatment bundle compliance.
3rd Place
Juan Walterspiel, M.D., FAAP, a pharma, biotech and medical device consultant and inventor, was awarded third place for his passive solution to prevent CLABSI, which leads to 10,000 deaths every year. The innovation is an inexpensive sleeve that fits over the end of the valve connector of the line to prevent contamination.
Honorable Mention:
Ige George, M.D., M.S., and Gerome Escota, M.D., both of Washington University School of Medicine, were awarded fourth place for their Twitter-based platform, @WuidQ, which is the first free open-access medical education resource to provide review of infectious diseases through board-style, multiple-choice questions.
1st Place
Audrey R. Odom John, M.D., Ph.D., chief of pediatric infectious diseases at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the winner of the inaugural IDEA Incubator for her “malaria breathalyzer” diagnostic tool.
The prize money enabled her team to build a prototype to bridge the gap and secure $500,000 in National Institutes of Health funding to move the project forward with the goal of eventually using it to improve patient care.
2nd Place
Qassim Mian, M.D., a third-year pediatrics resident at the University of Alberta won second place for a global development project that focuses on designing and implementing solar-powered oxygen systems in Uganda as a reliable and cost-effective measure to treat hypoxemic children with pneumonia. This project will be undergoing a transition-to-scale over the next few years and Qaasim is involved in developing, implementing and monitoring these systems.
3rd Place
Ana Luisa Neves, M.D., a Research Fellow at the Institute of Global Health & Innovation at Imperial College of London, co-developed momoby, a finger prick test aiming to bring healthcare to remote areas in low-income countries.