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RADx Awards $8M to Maternal Health Challenge Winners

NEW YORK – The Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) Tech program of the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering announced the winners of its maternal health challenge this week, awarding a total of $8 million in interim and final prizes to eight recipients.

The challenge was to develop home-based and point-of-care diagnostics, wearables, and other accessible technologies to improve postpartum health outcomes in the year after delivery or the end of a pregnancy, a period when most maternal deaths occur. It was co-sponsored by the NIH's Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

"In the United States, most pregnancy-related deaths are preventable," Diana Bianchi, director of the NICHD, said in a statement. "Equitable access to diagnostics can lead to timely interventions and potentially lifesaving treatments."

The six finalists awarded grand prizes of $525,000 each included Cardiex and Caretaker Medical, which make wearable cardiovascular health monitors; Sanguina, which makes a smartphone app to detect anemia; HemoSonics, for its diagnostic for postpartum hemorrhage; Global Access Diagnostics for its urinary tract infection test; and Sibel Health, for its US Food and Drug Administration-cleared remote total monitoring system.

The two runner-up teams awarded prizes of $300,000 each included PyrAmes, for its wearable blood pressure monitor, and MyLÚA Health, for its AI-based total health monitor.

The awards followed more than 80 initial submissions and two years of performance assessment and milestone-based interim awards in RADx Tech's post-COVID program. Participants received mentoring from industry experts, regulatory and manufacturing consults, and independent clinical evaluation.

Some of the products have been tested in pregnant and postpartum populations, some may be cleared by the FDA for obstetric settings, and others are still early-stage, RADx noted.