CIT firm misses out on €74,000 prize fund

A medical device company which is about to spin out from Cork Institute of Technology narrowly missed out on a $100,000 (€74,000) top prize at a prestigious medical device competition in the US.

AventaMed, co-founded by Cork Institute of Technology researchers Olive O’Driscoll and John Vaughan, finished 3rd at the MedTech Innovator event at the 22nd Annual Wilson Sonsini Medical Device Conference in San Francisco.

Almost 270 companies from around the world entered the competition.

Nonetheless, the event has given the pair the opportunity to meet investors and seek the funding which will enable them to commercialise their product to a global market.

Through their work at CIT’s MEDIC (Medical Engineering Design and Innovation Centre) facility AventaMed has developed a novel device for the insertion of grommets into children’s ears.

Grommets are small drainage tubes which are inserted into a tiny incision in the eardrum to relieve pressure, and to allow bacteria and fluid to drain from the middle ear.

One in every 15 children undergoes the procedure before they reach the age of seven and approximately 3,400 such procedures are carried out in Ireland every year.

Currently, the 30-minute procedure is carried out in an operating theatre, with the patient under general anaesthetic, and requires high levels of manual dexterity, multiple surgical instruments and a medical team of four.

However, the device invented by Ms O’Driscoll and Mr Vaughan, would enable surgeons to fit the grommet in their office in a matter of minutes without the need for a general anaesthetic.

The product is expected to be ready for the market by the end of 2014.

Daithi Fallon, head of MEDIC, said the development work had been made possible through the Enterprise Ireland commercialisation funds.