The Pressure Chamber returns for its 10th year as companies pitch to compete for the coveted “golden suitcase” and a spot in the Chamber’s exclusive Greater Madison startup meetings with Silicon Valley investment firms this fall.
One of the five finalists in this year’s competition is Child Health Imprints, an organization focused on the development and application of cutting edge informational technologies to the practice of medicine in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs).
Dr. Harpreet Singh is a co-founder of Child Health Imprints and began his journey in this work 11 years ago. He and his wife Ravneet Kauru were blessed with twins but one passed away because they were born prematurely. That tragedy inspired them to help in this area.
They are currently working on their iNICU technology, which helps babies in NICUs and is the business they will be presenting in the Pressure Chamber competition. Singh talked with Blueprint365 about his experience in the competition so far and what he’s looking forward to as a finalist.
“The competition experience has been pretty good so far,” he said. “Interacting with the Chamber of Commerce, they’re exceptionally talented people. It’s a very good format and fortunately for us, we have raised, in this round, close to $2.5 million and in the last round $3.5 million.”
iNICU is Child Health Imprints’ data solution platform that places cutting edge data science capabilities in the hands of NICU care teams. What sets iNICU apart from other data analytic tools used in NICUs today is that it creates continuously updated multi-modal time series data sets that organizes and presents actionable information to care teams. Through the use of machine learning and AI, the platform identifies patterns and trends that are easily missed in the press of daily routine activity.
“I will say especially for Child Health Imprints, the unique thing is that we are doing work that is very complex and in a very underserved area,” Singh said. “We work in the area of small babies. These babies were born before term, they’re kept in neonatal intensive care units, or NICUs. These are not sick babies, they’re just born too early. They’re very fragile and currently, they’re connected with a lot of equipment. Up to 11 pieces of equipment.”
Since its inception in Southeast Asia in late 2018, they have developed and launched clinical support systems now operating across the globe. Their commercial systems are serving 30 hospitals and have impacted 75,000 lives, Singh said.
“The business is very genuine in terms of what it’s trying to solve,” Singh said. “We have close to 80,000 babies on our platform right now. We have deployed the solution in 30-odd hospitals in Southeast Asia and (have) six pilots running across the U.S. and Canada. I will say the experience has been good. As a founder, the more visibility you get, the more people get to know about it, the more people join, because it takes a village to solve something. That’s the whole mission.”
In North America, Child Health Imprints is working with American Family Children’s Hospital at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Mount Sinai Kravis Children’s Hospital in Toronto. They also have ongoing pilot research studies at several other leading children’s hospitals in the U.S. and Canada.
Companies participating in the Pressure Chamber competition will pitch in front of a panel of national investors and a live audience. The winning company will be chosen based on a combination of the score from judges and votes from the audience. Singh is looking forward to continuing to spread awareness about this issue and get more people interested in what they can do to help.
“I feel if we can go and talk to people and explain to them these challenges, I hope that will generate interest, and this field will get moved forward,” Singh added.
The competition will take place on Tuesday, August 22. Live pitches start at 3:00 and run til 4:30 pm, then a happy hour and networking event will be held from 4:30-6:00 pm at the Majestic Theatre.
Register for the Pressure Chamber 2023 event using the Chamber of Commerce’s form. To learn more about the competition and Child Health Imprints’ data solution platform, iNICU, visit the Madison Chamber of Commerce’s website.
