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[ Back to Pediatric Engineering ]
Published in the Home News Tribune 8/21/03
By APARNA NARAYANAN
HEALTH WRITER
NEW BRUNSWICK: Saint Peter's University Hospital, Drexel University in Philadelphia and the New Jersey Institute of Technology have jointly established a center to develop medical devices for infants and children.
Announcing the partnership yesterday, neonatologist Dr. Harel Rosen of Saint Peter's said cutting-edge biomedical technology being developed in laboratories can take several years to reach physicians, and that there are further delays before it trickles down to newborns and children.
The Medtech Center for Infants and Children will "flip the model" of biomedical technology by "identifying problems in neonatal care and developing completely innovative solutions" targeted to new-borns and children, but having broader applications for adults, he said.
The facility will be staffed with biomedical engineers from Drexel and NJIT, as well as pediatricians, pediatric intensivists and neonatologists from Saint Peter's.
"It is the exposure of engineers to the clinical world and of clinicians to the engineering world that generates new ideas," said Rosen.
The center will use existing clinical space at The Children's Hospital at Saint Peter's, but the ultimate goal is to build a separate facility on the Saint Peter's campus, Rosen said. A capital campaign has been launched and will seek corporate and private donations, as well as possible federal and state appropriations.
The anticipated cost of the nonprofit facility was not available yesterday.
Rosen describing the center as the first "organized collaborative center for the design and development of pediatric biomedical technology" in the tristate region said it has several projects under way.
These include near a Drexel initiative on brain imaging called near-infrared spectroscopy, which uses light to monitor the amount of oxygen in brain tissue. Current technology either is invasive or does not target the brain, Rosen said.
Other projects include rapid detection of infection, heart rate variability analysis and a new form of light treatment for jaundiced infants, he added.
These projects emphasize "noninvasive diagnostics in infants," Rosen said.
Dr. Arye Rosen, an academy professor of biomedical engineering at Drexel University, said that as the survival rate among premature babies has increased, so has the need for technology "dedicated to the pediatric world and to the neonate."
"Children are not small adults. Their physiology is different, their system is different," he said.
The partnership benefits Drexel's nationally reputed School of Biomedical Engineering by exposing staff and students to the area of pediatrics, he said, adding the school also "will gain economically" from the potential commercialization of the devices.
"We're excited about helping children and saving the newborn," he said.
William Hunter, chairman of biomedical engineering at NJIT, said the institute already is working on several projects to improve children's health.
"The center will bring to fruition concepts and designs never before thought of in terms of pediatric care," he said.
Donations may be made by calling Saint Peter's at (732) 745-8542.
Aparna Narayanan: (732) 565-7306; e-mail anarayan@thnt.com
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Phone 215.895.2215 | Fax 215.895.4983 | Email biomed@drexel.edu |
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