| Applications for the 4th Annual Innovations Pitch Competition are closed. |
The 4th Annual Innovations Pitch Competition
Competition Overview
The 4th Annual Innovations Pitch Competition will focus on bright ideas to reduce risk, improve prediction and deliver better healthcare tools for outbreak-prone diseases in low-resource settings.
This year’s competition will highlight tools and methods that will improve two of the most consequential threats to a healthy and sustainable world: resilience in the face of a pandemic and reducing the deleterious impact of climate change.
The innovations proposed should be marketable, scalable, and rooted in scientific rigor. Innovations may address, but are not limited to:
- Pandemic solutions including (but not limited to) vaccine acceptance, tracking of vaccine effectiveness, virus variant tracking, quality diagnostics, innovative approaches to prevention of disease spread, and predictive forecasting of emerging threats.
- Identifying and mitigating the direct and indirect effects of climate change and its consequences of vector-competency, and human and animal health.
Eligibility, Requirements & Additional Information
- Individuals or teams are eligible to apply.
- Individuals or teams that have applied previously are eligible to apply again.
- Applications must be completed and submitted by the application deadline. Applications that are not fully complete, will be rejected.
- Preference will be given to teams that include an LMIC team member, but at a minimum, demonstrate collaboration with LMIC investigators or are applicable to LMIC settings.
- Five finalists will be selected for the final presentation round at the Annual Meeting. It is expected that you will present in person or virtually.
- Format: Each of the five finalists selected will pitch their innovation in a 5-10 minute 'TED Talk' style talk. Finalists may use a single PowerPoint slide that has up to three transitions.
- A panel of distinguished judges will ask questions of the finalists and will score each finalist based on innovation, impact, approach and ability to deploy the innovation.
- The competition is interactive. The audience will ask questions and will vote through a digital application.
- The judges' scores will count for 60% of the final total; the audience vote will count for 40%.
The 2021 Annual Meeting is being planned as a hybrid conference with in-person presentations and an online platform for virtual attendance. Poster presentations will only be available online. The Scientific Program Chair and the Annual Meeting COVID-19 Biosafety Task Force are actively monitoring the COVID-19 pandemic and transmission patterns to assure a safe and healthy meeting. Specific information regarding ASTMH conference safety measures will be provided in September. We are adhering to the CDC’s recommendations for indoor mask wearing and following guidance from the Maryland Department of Health and local regulations from Prince George’s County (MD) Health Department. In addition, we are in regular communication with the management at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland, the 2021 conference location.
2020: Innovations Pitch Competition Session for Healthy Children, Healthy Planet: The 3rd Annual Innovations Pitch Competition session, focused on the interconnectivity of children’s current and future health with planetary health and sustainability. This year we challenged innovators to provide proposals that support a healthier, more sustainable world, with a particular focus on benefit for future generations. Innovations should be rooted in scientific rigor, and Innovators should be able to demonstrate that their innovation will benefit the health of our planet and will impact children’s health today and in the future.
Grand prize winner: Sreekar Mantena
Innovation: Smartphone-based system for imaging and automated analysis of the corneal endothelium
2nd Place: Molly Klarman: MotoMeds; pediatic telehealth and mobile pharmacy services
3rd-5th Place (listed alphabetically):
- Prince Kajazi Kaude, RN: Improving survival of children with Burkitt Lymphoma by means of ultrasound screening
- Lok Pokhrel: Smart Rapid-Acting Antiviral Therapy (Smart-RAAT) against COVID-19
- Adam Soomro: Project DIY (Don It Young)
Audience Favorite: Prince Kajazi Kaude, RN
Thank you to our judges for their participation in our 3rd Annual Competition.
- Dan Bausch, UK Public Health Rapid Support Team, London, UK
- Rebecca Richards-Kortum, Rice University, Houston, TX
- Mathias Strobl, Roche Diagnostics GmbH, Penzberg, Germany
- Minmin Yen, PhagePro, Boston, MA
Note of Appreciation
Many thanks to the Ronald McDonald House Charities® (RMHC) for their celebration of Peter Hotez, MD, PhD, FASTMH, FAAP, and support of our mission. Many thanks to Roche for their funding. A special thank you to Dr. Hotez, an ASTMH Past President and recipient of the 2019 RMHC Awards of Excellence, for sharing his grant award with the Society.
Previous Finalists and Former Symposia
2019: Innovations for Response to Outbreak-Prone Diseases: A Challenge to Innovators to Pitch their Ideas for Reducing Risk, Improving Prediction and Delivering Better Healthcare Tools in Resource-Limited Settings. Innovative ideas for mitigating outbreak-prone disease risk through novel uses of social communication, improved predictive capabilities, or development of better tools to detect disease, control disease, and disseminate information on disease spread.
Grand prize winner: Minmin Yen, PhagePro
Innovation: Prophalytic-Vc: A Phage-based Intervention to Disrupt Household Transmission of Cholera
For more information, visit their website.
2nd Place: Chang Hee Kim, GoDx: Rapid, Low-cost Field Diagnostic for Pathogens that Cause Diarrhea Outbreaks
3rd - 5th Places (listed alphabetically)
- Laura Braun, Capta Diagnostics: Smart Microscopy for Diagnosing Soil-transmitted Helminths and Schistosomiasis
- Holiday Goodreau, TickTracker: TickTracker Mobile Application
- Chouaibou Mouhamadou, Environment Entomology Textile Associates: A Trapping Bed Net (T-Net) to Overcome Mosquito Insecticide Resistance
Audience Favorite: Laura Braun, Capta Diagnostics
ASTMH September 2020 Newsletter article: Catching Up With 2019 Innovations Pitch Winner, Minmin Yen, PhD
Thank you to the 2019 Innovations Pitch Competition educational supporter, Roche Diagnostics, Inc., and our sponsors ASTMH and Vulcan, Inc.
2018: Innovations for Mitigation Response to Outbreak-Prone Diseases: A Challenge to Innovations for Reducing Risk, Improving Prediction and Delivering Better Healthcare Tools. Topics for innovation include mitigating risk through social communication, improving predictive capabilities, delivering better tools (surveillance, diagnostics, data-sharing, vector control, as examples), and other novel innovations to prevent, detect and respond to outbreaks of international concern.
Grand prize winner: Tristan Ford and Margaret Glancey, VectorWEB
Innovation: A Novel System for Autonomous Vector Surveillance
2nd Place: Camila De Oliveira, FIOCRUZ: Rapid strip test for ID and surveillance of cutaneous leishmaniasis risk areas
3rd -5th (listed alphabetically)
- Rinki Deb, Determining Indoor Residual Spraying Quality using Electromagnetic Wave Sensors
- David Serre, A Universal and high-throughput vector-borne disease surveillance assay
- Rhys O'Neill and David Cyprian, Novetta: Assessments, Boots on the Ground, Communications, Data...: An A-Z Solution for Social Mobilization in Developing Regions
(Winners of the 2018 Innovations Pitch Competition, Tristan Ford [left] and Meg Glancey [center] of VectorWEB at the Johns Hopkins Center for Bioengineering Innovation and Design, and their professor Dr. Soumyadipta Acharya [right], the Graduate Program Director of the JHU CBID.)
ASTMH October 2019 Newsletter article: Whatever happened to the 2018 Innovations Pitch Competition Winner, VectorWEB?
Thank you to the 2018 Innovations Pitch Competition sponsors, ASTMH and Vulcan, Inc.