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Standings & Awards
284 out of 284 in Health
573 out of 573 in Pilot
555 out of 555 in For-Profit
4003 out of 4003 Overall
0
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Pediatric sickle cell patients are 333 times more likely to experience an ischemic stroke as compared to healthy children. In fact, 11% do suffer a stroke before turning 18. It is a largely underserved patient population as proven by its orphan disease status (12 million affected worldwide). Disorders can distort red blood cells into a sickle shape, leaving the cell stiff, sticky and inflexible. This may lead to occlusions in small blood vessels causing strokes, potentially ending a child's life before the age of two. Sickle cell patients have a naturally increased intracranial blood velocity, which has proven to indicate an elevated risk for stroke in this population. NovoView has developed a revolutionary technology that can measure the risk for strokes in sickle cell patients by measuring blood flow in the eye building on the proven correlation between cerebral and conjunctival blood velocity. Our working prototype, the EyeFlow, effectively and rapidly acquires images of the microcirculation to measure blood flow. These images are taken using a lighting source equipped with a charge-coupled device camera. This camera captures 60 frames/second, requiring the patient to sit still for only a few seconds in order to gain sufficient images for the subsequent analysis. These images are automatically transferred to a computer where proprietary algorithms calculate blood flow by measuring blood vessel diameter and blood velocity. NovoView has obtained proof-of-concept by completing multiple studies, since its discovery in 2009 (including 60 patients). Confirmatory proof-of-concept studies were born out of numerous publications attesting a significantly high correlation between conjunctival and cerebral blood flow. As opposed to the current technology being used, TransCranial Doppler (ultrasound through the skull), NovoView has a much easier to use, cheaper and quicker approach that will enable more patients to receive the critical stroke risk screening, reducing mortality and morbidity while saving health care systems around the world millions of dollars. With more money in funding, we will be able to conduct further confirmatory studies, followed by a six month clinical trial as well as to develop a more marketable, advanced beta-prototype in preparation of scaling operations in the future.








