Pediatric Medical Device Innovation in Southern California

Identifying the unmet needs for pediatric medical devices, the Southern California Center for Technology and Innovation in Pediatrics (CTIP) opened in mid-2011 with the support of the University of Southern California (USC) and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.

According to a study performed by the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO), pediatric medical devices lag behind adult devices due to the lack of financial incentives for manufacturers. Not only is the pediatric population smaller, but children are physiologically different than adults and there is a very small pool of pediatric clinical trial participants. The FDA Amendments Act of 2007 was written to help overcome these barriers to commercialization in small markets. Part of this Act allows for a FDA humanitarian device exemption (HDE) for diseases or conditions that affect less than 4000 people in the United States. All of these commercialization and development challenges in the pediatric medical devices led to the founding of CTIP.

Leardon Solutions is proud to be an industry partner of CTIP, helping Southern California clinicians and researchers design, engineer, and prototype their pediatric medical device products. This involvement led to an invitation to the inaugural Pediatric Venture Accelerator Forum held at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. This forum brought together clinicians, engineers, industry, investors, and academics to discuss the latest in pediatric medical devices and to find innovative ways to accelerate pediatric medical device development.

To see the highlights from the Pediatric Venture Accelerator Forum in April 2012, please view the video below. For more information on the Southern California CTIP, please go to the CTIP website .

Need more information on new product development or the manufacturing process? Please contact us with any questions or contact me directly at joseph.donoghue ( at ) leardon.com