- Identify two SPECIFIC funding sources for the design phase of your project and two SPECIFIC funding sources for the dissemination (implementation / distribution / commercialization) phase of your project. For each funding source, explain why this is a good fit for your project, and what SPECIFIC aspect of your project might the funding source support.
Development Innovation Venture
The Development Innovation Venture supports funding for projects related to innovation and solutions. This venture is a good funding source for our SicklED project because the mission of our project is to engineer a solution to the lack of awareness, diagnosis, and treatment of Sickle Cell Anemia in Sierra Leone, Africa. Our innovation to solving this global issue is a lateral flow diagnostic test strip device that diagnoses whether a patient has sickle cell disease carrying HbS or carries the trait for the disease. “DIV provides grant funding based on a tiered-evidence approach that maximizes impact per dollar spent.” Additionally, DIV looks for “solutions that demonstrate rigorous evidence of impact, cost effectiveness, and a viable pathway to scale and sustainability.” Our project targets all of these aspects, thus making DIV a good funding source for our project.
The NHLBI Catalyze program is part of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, and provides funding for scientific projects related to the heart, lung, blood, and sleep. Since our project is on Sickle Cell Anemia disease, a blood disorder, this program is a good fit for funding opportunities for our project. The NHLBI Catalyze program “facilitates the transition of basic science discoveries into viable diagnostic and therapeutic candidates cleared for human testing.”
NIH Bioengineering grants would be particularly helpful with the implementation phase of our project, seeing as the grant provides medical device innovators with the specialized business frameworks and tools to help transition biomedical technologies from the lab into the market. This would be greatly helpful in the eventual distribution of our strip tests; we cannot successfully implement our device without having a solid business model. Additionally, since our project is STEM major oriented, having a grant to help with the business side of our venture would be extremely beneficial to the progress of our project.
“The ASH Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) Initiative addresses the state of SCD treatment in the United States and around the world by uniting people who care about SCD to improve care, early diagnosis, treatment, and research.” This is the first time that ASH is undertaking an initiative in support of a single disease.The Ash foundation would support funding for the widespread implementation of our device. They seek programs that specifically focus on Sickle Cell Anemia disease (SCD) and would support our venture, as we focus on diagnosing and raising awareness of SCD. Some requirements for funding from the Ash foundation include programs that focus on “Raising awareness and encouraging action on SCD,” “providing training and education for hematologists and other health-care providers who may treat people with SCD,” and “Improving global standards of care, research programs, and access to clinical trials for people with SCD.” Our venture, SicklED, meets these requirements, as we focus on diagnosing SCD in Sierra Leone to contribute to lowering the overall child mortality rate in this country.
- Identify five specific partnerships that you need to forge to advance your project forward with the ultimate goal of positively impacting at least one million people. Describe exactly how that partnership might help you achieve scale and why that entity might be willing to work with you.
The Sierra Leone Ministry of Health is a particular partnership that would facilitate the implementation of our device into the existing healthcare system in Sierra Leone. Without this partnership, we would not be able to successfully bring our product into the current healthcare process. If we cannot get our device brought into Sierra Leone, then the likelihood of our venture achieving scale will greatly decrease. Since our venture is directly related to the health and wellness of the people in Sierra Leone, by working with our venture, the Ministry of Health would increase its ability to care for those who need it.
Furthermore, World Hope International is an organization committed to “high-impact interventions that improve the health, wellbeing, and survival of women, children, and families” (World Hope International). This clearly aligns with our venture, as our point of care device will ultimately be working to lower the high mortality rate of children in Sierra Leone. Since World Hope International is already conducting work in Sierra Leone, this established network could help with countrywide expansion. They would be willing to work with us due to the alignment of our goals; we would only be helping them to achieve their goal of improving the health of children in sub-Saharan Africa.
Collaborating further with the Sickle Cell Carers Awareness Network would allow us to assist in increasing the awareness surrounding Sickle Cell disease in Sierra Leone. SCCAN is a nonprofit organization that began in 2008 in Kono District, and it focuses on promoting sickle cell awareness and supporting people living with SCD and their carers. They run a weekly sickle cell clinic; school visits and community outreach are among their daily activities. By increasing awareness and education, we can help to minimize the fatality of SCD. Since our venture is starting out in Sierra Leone, it is important that we collaborate with the organizations in the country that are tackling the issue of SCD. This way, we can successfully implement our device in Sierra Leone — a stepping stone to achieving scale. Furthermore, the clear alignment of our goals with their venture would most likely encourage them to join forces with our venture.
Working with the NIH would help our project gain national recognition which would help to propel our venture forward on a global scale. They would be likely to work with us since one of the main goals of the agency is to foster fundamentally creative discoveries and innovative research strategies. Furthermore, the NIH specifies that they support research in the “causes, diagnosis, prevention and cure of human diseases” (NIH). Our test strip is a point of care device that is working to tackle the underdiagnosis and high mortality rate of Sickle Cell Disease in South Africa; we are definitely in the field of research that the NIH supports.
Lastly, working with the World Health Organization would open many doors for us – specifically in scaling the venture. The World Health Organization leads global efforts to expand health equity by promoting healthy lives for all ages, backgrounds, and circumstances. This mission statement very closely aligns with ours as we seek to improve access to diagnosis in under-represented areas to get people the treatment they need. This partnership will be established in the future of the project and will help scale our project across Sub-Saharan Africa – where the demand for SCD diagnosis is very high. Once established in Sierra Leone and partnered with the World Health Organization, we will have contacts in many countries to get the device off the ground and fully implemented.
- Review the sample questions for your semester-end presentations: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RObgGrePBUjAYN9DRhPG9kg4DjGvstVnElCrYstlbF4/edit
As a team, identify the top five questions that you don’t know how to answer. Your questions will serve as the nucleus for conversations during our final class next week.
- What evidence do you have to show to the referees that you’ve made progress?
- What will the project look like 3-6-9 months out? (pick a time) and key milestones
- What have you accomplished since day 1, have you moved the project further?
- How do you address any questions regarding Intellectual Property?
- What gives you the right to do this? Why should we trust you?