The 2006 class of BMEidea competition winners can best be described as aggressively innovative. From telerobotic needle insertion systems to “smart” vascular grafts to noninvasive anemia screening tools, these teams are pushing the boundaries of biomedical product design and, in the process, changing how we care for patients.

As we did with the 2005 winners, we caught up with the 2006 finalists a year after the awards ceremony to see what they’re up to now, how their project is going, and how participating in the BMEidea competition has influenced their careers.

First prize ($10,000): Nanografts
University of California, Berkeley

With over 500,000 performed each year, coronary artery bypass surgery is the default procedure for people with severe heart disease. But the surgery, in which doctors remove a healthy blood vessel from the patient’s arm or leg and use it to build a detour around a blocked artery in the heart, isn’t without its drawbacks: 50% of vein grafts fail in 5-10 years, the surgery to harvest the vein is expensive and invasive, and some patients have veins that simply aren’t strong enough to act as a coronary bypass graft.

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Second prize ($2,500): AnemiCAM
Brown University

Anemia, a pathological deficiency in hemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying component of the blood, can cause fatigue, organ dysfunction, poor pregnancy outcomes and, in children, can impair growth and motor and mental development. While the disease affects an estimated 3.5 million Americans, it is an epidemic in the developing world, affecting 50% of the population in some countries. Although easily diagnosable with a simple blood test and highly treatable thereafter, screening for anemia is a significant challenge in the developing world because physicians often lack the necessary laboratory infrastructure for blood testing—and even in areas with the right facilities, needle reuse is a serious problem.

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Second prize (tie, $2,500): UltraMed Ultrasound
Pennsylvania State University

Cancer experts believe that early detection is the best way to prevent the disease from turning fatal. Yet, despite great advances in cancer research, early detection remains a significant challenge and mortality is still high—in 2006, cancer accounted for 25% of all illness-related deaths.

This Penn State team hopes to bring that number down with UltraMed Ultrasound, an improved ultrasound technology that makes the early detection of cancer easier.

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Third prize ($1,000): Robopsy
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The Robopsy team is making an inefficient process much more efficient.

A typical lung biopsy today takes two hours to complete, with doctors using a CT scan to find a suspect mass in a patient, inserting the needle, and taking a sample. The problem is that the doctor can’t be in the room during the scan due to radiation; instead, they watch the scan through a computer monitor and then return to the room to find the right spot for the biopsy manually. As the needle is gradually inserted, the doctor and support staff continually shuttle between the radiation-shielded control room (during scanning) and the CT room (when manipulating the needle), moving the patient in and out of the CT machine again and again.

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