Wearable tech startup, sim lab expo on tap for Idea Pub

May 12, 2025 Comments (0) News

OMAHA, Nebraska (May 12, 2025)—The next Idea Pub: Morning Edition is set for Thursday, May 22, at 9 a.m. in the Catalyst building’s Forge Event Hall.

The event will feature brief remarks from Richard Vlasimsky, the CEO of Grasshopper Health, a wearable tech startup in Lincoln. The Grasshopper Patch, which resembles a large Band-Aid, is a device that can help doctors remotely monitor the wearer’s gait.

Poster for May 22, 2025 Idea Pub: Morning EditionGait can often provide insight for diagnosing and treating serious conditions such as Parkinson’s Disease, stroke, post-surgical complications and peripheral artery disease.

His presentation will be held in the new Catalyst building on the western edge of the UNMC campus, on Saddle Creek Road. Free coffee and doughnuts will be provided, and co-sponsor Catalyst will also offer complimentary facility tours on a first-come, first-served basis.

Metered parking is available along 46th Street.

The event is set for 9-10 a.m. in the event center on the north end of the building.

Immediately following Idea Pub, Pipeline Worldwide will host the Omaha Simulation Container Lab Expo at 10 a.m. The showcase will feature a ground-breaking project that transformed a shipping container into a fully equipped medical simulation training lab. The lab will soon be shipped to Uganda where it will be used to provide additional medical education to healthcare professionals in underserved regions. Tours of the lab are available by reservation.

UNeMed, the technology transfer and commercialization office for UNMC and UNO, created Morning Edition to help University innovators and entrepreneurs connect and collaborate with colleagues and experts from the venture capital and startup communities.

Morning Edition will also regularly feature “Office Hours” with UNeMed staff and Charlie Cuddy, who co-founded the Nebraska Startup Academy and MOVE Venture Capital. Office Hours creates the opportunity for faculty, students and staff to have one-on-one time with MOVE or UNeMed professionals to discuss new technologies or startup potential.

MOVE is a pre-seed and seed venture capital firm focused on investing in Nebraska technology startup companies. The Nebraska Startup Academy is a mentoring program for startup founders, investors and the local entrepreneurial community with the aim of building Nebraska into “an innovation hub in the Midwest.”

Morning Edition will be held on the final Thursday of every month and will continue to feature guest speakers from the University’s stable of successful and budding startup companies and from Omaha’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. The event will provide UNMC and UNO innovators an opportunity to build new partnerships and allies that can help develop their innovative ideas and discoveries into products that help people.

The event is free and open to all, and complimentary coffee and doughnuts will be provided as long as supplies last.

Future planned dates and speakers are:

  • June 26: Aprendo Cardiovascular Solutions
  • July 31: Wearable Algorithms
  • Aug. 28: PinkSteady
  • Sep. 25: Deep Health Diagnostics
  • Oct. 30: UNO NCITE
  • Nov. 20: XR Renegades
  • Dec. 18: Surgical Simulation Technologies

Morning Edition is part of UNeMed’s “Idea Pub,” a suite of entrepreneurial networking events that includes “Innovations & Libations” and “Startup Showcase.”

Read article

Omaha startup clears FDA, will hit market this month

May 7, 2025 Comments (0) News

UNMC surgeon, Jason Johanning, MD, inventor and founder of Automated Assessments, presents his innovative approach for determining patient frailty before surgical prcedures.

OMAHA, Nebraska (May 7, 2025)—Local startup Automated Assessments recently landed FDA approval for its medical device and will be on the market and available for clinical use in the coming weeks, co-founder and inventor Jason Johanning, MD, announced last month.

Dr. Johanning, Professor of Vascular Surgery at UNMC and a nationally recognized expert on surgical quality, made the announcement as the featured speaker of the most recent Idea Pub: Morning Edition, held on April 24, 2025. Morning Edition is UNeMed’s entrepreneurial networking event.

“We’ve automated frailty assessment,” he told the gathering during his brief presentation in the new Catalyst building in the Edge District. Adding later: “We’re at the finish line.”

Automated Assessment’s frailty assessment tool, Vital-IT, is a handheld device that helps surgeons and healthcare workers determine the potential risk and recovery requirements for surgical patients. a patient’s ability to withstand and recover from surgery. The system, produced and manufactured in Nebraska, represents a significant improvement over previous methods for performing frailty assessment and automates the whole process.

Previous approaches to pre-surgical risk screening was a physician’s “eyeball” test. The field has moved to a more objective assessment by assessing frailty with a brief questionnaire.

While Chief of Surgery at the Omaha VA Medical Center, Dr. Johanning developed a more robust variation of the pre-operative assessment called the “Surgical Pause.” It established a new standard measure of patient frailty assessments, and was awarded the Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Innovation Award by the Joint Commission and National Quality Forum.

A critical element for the approaching product launch is that VITAL-IT can seamlessly connect with virtually all major healthcare platforms that track everything from patient charts to billing and reimbursement systems.

Automating the assessment was important for several reasons, including saving time and money for clinical staff and their institutions. But more importantly, Dr. Johanning said, many physicians and patients might not recognize their own frailty and are surprised when poor outcomes occur.

Patients might worry that “you’re going to identify me as frail and then use that to not take care of me,” he said. “That’s the absolute reverse of what we want to do. We want to identify frailty so we can wrap you with proper resources and care to optimize your outcome.”

Dillon De Rozairo (right), COO of Nebraska Innovation Labs, chats with an audience member shortly after his brief presentation during the April 24, 2025, Idea Pub: Morning Edition.

Dillon De Rozairo also delivered brief remarks, explaining the services Nebraska Innovation Labs provides. He is the Chief Operations Officer for the non-profit, which specializes in low-cost software and app development for area startups.

Morning Edition is UNeMed’s networking event for university innovators, entrepreneurs and startup community members. Catalyst, a co-sponsor of the event, also provided tours of the spacious facility, which is tentatively planning a grand opening event in late May.

Future Morning Editions will continue meeting in Catalyst’s Forge Event Hall, on the north end of the building. Guided tours will also continue as a feature of upcoming Morning Editions.

The next Morning Edition is planned for May 29, 2025, in the Catalyst Forge Event Hall at 9 a.m.-11 a.m. The featured speaker will be representatives of Grasshopper Health, which is developing a sophisticated wearable device for monitoring subtle changes and variations in a person’s gait. The device could lead to early diagnoses and determining disease progression for serious conditions such as Parkinson’s Disease, stroke, and peripheral artery disease.

Read article

What I learned as a tech transfer intern

May 5, 2025 Comments (0) Blog

by Cole Melton, UNeMed | May 5, 2025

A year ago, if someone had told me that doctors, patent lawyers, researchers, and business professionals could seamlessly collaborate, I would have been skeptical. Their roles, training, and personalities seemed worlds apart. But that was before I had the incredible opportunity to work at UNeMed, where I witnessed firsthand the magic of interdisciplinary teamwork.

As a medical and business student working as a licensing and marketing intern at UNeMed this past year, I quickly learned the importance of technology transfer in health care. Tech Transfer combines diverse professions to create success. I discovered the unique value tech transfer brings to colleges, universities, and the world by creating new products and opening new markets.

To bring new products to market, UNeMed transforms unassuming doctors and scientists into top-tier entrepreneurs. These individuals often don’t realize they want to become innovators, but UNeMed helps them discover their potential. This is their secret superpower.

This translation process is not without its challenges. I have witnessed lagging technology adoption directly impacting patient care in the clinic. Each day, researchers make new discoveries, but their impact on patients is delayed. Tech transfer provides the tools and capabilities to help doctors get their hands on new technology and spread new ideas quickly.

Apart from helping move technology forward, UNeMed and TTO’s can find new revenue sources for universities. The current uneasiness and shortfall with public funding can be addressed by tech transfer programs. These programs explore nontraditional funding routes, generate new project ideas, and shift focus to new grant applications. Technology transfer can lead investigators down less-traveled paths, and universities to unique success.

All these elements come together to define UNeMed. It’s a hub of hardworking, dedicated employees who are committed to driving innovation and making a positive impact on the world around them. My experience has shown the great potential of combining diverse disciplines to drive innovation and improve patient care. I encourage anyone interested in making a difference to explore the opportunities tech transfer offers.

Personally, my internship has been incredibly enriching. I’ve learned to evaluate all types of inventions, witnessed the relentless efforts of startups to bring their products to market, and expanded my network within the Omaha community. As I embark on my journey to become a clinician and hospital administrator, I now understand that tech transfer offices are invaluable. They support doctors and researchers in facing new challenges, fostering innovation, and solving complex problems.

Read article

Next Morning Edition set for April 24, surgical startup to headline

April 9, 2025 Comments (0) News

OMAHA, Nebraska (April 9, 2025)—The next Idea Pub: Morning Edition will be Thursday, April 24, with Jason Johanning, MD, lined up as the featured speaker.

Dr. Johanning is the vascular surgeon and Professor of Surgery at UNMC who invented a device that helps determine patient frailty before a surgery. A common practice among surgeons is to shake hands with patients about to undergo surgery, using grip strength as one indicator to help determine if the patient is healthy enough to withstand the procedure.

Dr. Johanning’s invention began as a way to quantify and standardize the subjective handshake. The invention has since evolved into a robust data gathering device and predictive algorithm, and is the cornerstone technology behind his startup, Automated Assessments.

His brief presentation will be held in the new Catalyst building on the western edge of campus, on Saddle Creek Road. Free coffee and doughnuts will be provided, along with facility tours on a first-come, first-served basis. Free parking will be available along 46th Street.

Poster for April 24, 2025 Idea Pub: Morning EditionThe event is set for 9-11 a.m. in the event center on the north end of the building.

Dr. Johanning is among UNeMed’s most prolific innovators with 23 inventions, 11th most among active inventors at UNMC. His startup was also named the 2019 Startup of the Year when it was doing business as FutureAssure.

Catalyst is co-sponsoring the event, offering complimentary facility tours.

UNeMed, the technology transfer and commercialization office for UNMC and UNO, created Morning Edition to help University innovators and entrepreneurs connect and collaborate with colleagues and experts from the venture capital and startup communities.

Morning Edition will also regularly feature “Office Hours” with UNeMed staff and Charlie Cuddy, who co-founded the Nebraska Startup Academy and MOVE Venture Capital. Office Hours creates the opportunity for faculty, students and staff to have one-on-one time with MOVE or UNeMed professionals to discuss new technologies or startup potential.

MOVE is a pre-seed and seed venture capital firm focused on investing in Nebraska technology startup companies. The Nebraska Startup Academy is a mentoring program for startup founders, investors and the local entrepreneurial community with the aim of building Nebraska into “an innovation hub in the Midwest.”

Morning Edition will be held on the final Thursday of every month and will continue to feature guest speakers from the University’s stable of successful and budding startup companies and from Omaha’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. The event will provide UNMC and UNO innovators an opportunity to build new partnerships and allies that can help develop their innovative ideas and discoveries into products that help people.

The event is free and open to all, and complimentary coffee and doughnuts will be provided as long as supplies last.

Future planned dates and speakers are:

  • May 29: Grasshopper Health
  • June 26: Aprendo Cardiovascular Solutions
  • July 31: Wearable Algorithms
  • Aug. 28: PinkSteady
  • Sep. 25: Deep Health Diagnostics
  • Oct. 30: UNO NCITE
  • Nov. 20: XR Renegades
  • Dec. 18: Surgical Simulation Tech

Morning Edition is part of UNeMed’s “Idea Pub,” a suite of entrepreneurial networking events that includes “Innovations & Libations” and “Startup Showcase.”

Read article

Fast Company lists Virtual Incision among world’s ‘Most Innovative Companies’

April 8, 2025 Comments (0) News

Fast Company March 2025 CoverNEW YORK, New York (April 8, 2025)—Virtual Incision, a University of Nebraska startup company building the future of surgical robotics, was listed No. 8 in Fast Company magazine’s annual list of most innovative medical device makers in the world.

Virtual Incision’s inclusion was part of Fast Company’s annual spring edition: “Most Innovative Companies.” The full list includes 609 companies spread over 58 categories, all of which can be seen on the Fast Company website or in the printed version.

In the accompanying text piece about the top medical device companies, Fast Company noted that Virtual Incision “has made it easy for facilities of any size to offer minimally invasive surgery, even bringing its technology to space.”

The full text of Virtual Incision’s entry reads:

Minimally invasive surgery, which involves very small incisions, is great for patients. It results in less pain, fewer complications, and a shorter recovery time. However, roughly 90% of the operating rooms in the U.S. still lack access to technology that makes minimally invasive surgery possible.

 

Virtual Incision has created MIRA, the first miniaturized robotic surgical system for minimally invasive surgery. While many surgical robots require a dedicated mainframe and operating room, the approximately 2-pound MIRA can be used as a stand-alone device for smaller facilities or within an existing mainframe system. In February 2024, the Nebraska-based company received FDA approval to market MIRA for adults who need colectomies. Colectomies are one of the most complex abdominal procedures, and nearly half are still being performed as open surgery.

 

In addition, Virtual Incision took MIRA to space. In February 2024, the company developed a space version of MIRA and sent it to the International Space Station. Six surgeons based on earth were able to direct the space MIRA, and they successfully simulated surgical maneuvers such as grasping and cutting.

 

Closer to home, in July 2024, Virtual Incision launched an international study evaluating MIRA’s ability to handle gynecological procedures. At the end of that month, MIRA successfully completed a hysterectomy at Geneva University Hospitals in Switzerland. While the study is still ongoing, in time the company hopes to get clearance for MIRA to do gynecological procedures.

Virtual Incision’s MIRA system is the product of a collaboration between co-founders Shane Farritor, PhD, a UNL robotics engineer, and Dmitry Oleynikov, MD, a former UNMC surgeon. With more than 200 patents and patent applications, Virtual Incision is headquartered in Lincoln.

Read article

HemaGlobal opens Morning Edition at Catalyst

April 3, 2025 Comments (0) News

John Neubaum (center), co-founder of Omaha startup HemaGlobal, and Michael Wadman, MD (right)—Chair of UNMC's emergency medicine department and co-inventor of RapidSmear, the startup's foundational technology—chat with Rob Owen (far left), Executive Director of Bio Nebraska, during the March 27, 2025, Morning Edition networking event at Catalyst.

John Neubaum (center), co-founder of Omaha startup HemaGlobal, and Michael Wadman, MD (right)—Chair of UNMC’s emergency medicine department and co-inventor of RapidSmear, the startup’s foundational technology—chat with Rob Owen (far left), Executive Director of Bio Nebraska, during the March 27, 2025, Morning Edition networking event at Catalyst.

OMAHA, Nebraska (April 3, 2025)—Attendees at UNeMed’s March 27 installment of Idea Pub: Morning Edition got an early peek inside the nearly completed Catalyst building, just a few weeks shy of its grand opening.

Morning Edition is UNeMed’s networking event for university innovators, entrepreneurs and startup community members, and featured two short presentations. One highlighted an innovative medical device developed at UNMC, and the other outlined a division within the Department of Defense currently seeking innovative faculty and their ideas.

Michael Dixon, PhD, UNeMed's President and CEO, addresses the crowd during the first Idea Pub: Morning Edition to be held in the new Catalyst building. Held on Thursday, March 27, 2025, the networking event also included guided tours of the nearly completed facility, which is expected to host a grand opening in May.

Michael Dixon, PhD, UNeMed’s President and CEO, addresses the crowd during the first Idea Pub: Morning Edition to be held in the new Catalyst building. Held on Thursday, March 27, 2025, the networking event also included guided tours of the nearly completed facility, which is expected to host a grand opening in May.

Catalyst, a co-sponsor of the event, also provided tours of the spacious facility, which is tentatively planning a grand opening event in late May. Future Morning Editions will continue meeting in Catalyst’s Forge Event Hall, on the north end of the building. Guided tours will also continue as a feature of upcoming Morning Editions.

UNeMed President and CEO, Michael Dixon, PhD, opened Thursday’s meeting to encourage onlookers to reach out to fellow attendees to meet new people and forge new bonds.

“We do this to get people here who share a passion for innovation and development,” he said.

“Whether you’re a community member or a University employee,” he added, with a sweeping gesture to the crowd, “these are the people that can help you.”

The featured speaker, John Neubaum, delivered a presentation about a new innovation developed at UNMC.

Neubaum, a design engineer at RD Tool and Engineering, is co-founder of HemaGlobal, an Omaha startup built on an invention borne from UNMC’s innovative emergency medicine department. Department chair Michael Wadman, MD, and nurse Thang Nguyen, PhD, collaborated to create a device called “RapidSmear.” It is a portable device that allows clinical staff to quickly and easily prepare blood and bone marrow samples for microscopic examination.

The proper preparation of a blood slide for diagnostic testing is more complicated than it looks, and an improperly prepared slide could create potentially disastrous delays during a medical emergency, Neubaum said.

“I don’t think they could have picked more unqualified people to perform a test [of the prototype] than me and my father,” he said. “It was easy.”

He added that a 6-year-old family member also successfully prepared a smear slide using the new device, which is small enough to fit in a pocket and cost-effective enough to be disposable.

RapidSmear is on track to launch for public use in early 2026, he said.

A view of the main hall or "alley" of the new Catalyst building at UNMC on March 27, 2025, about four weeks before the scheduled grand opening.

A view of the main hall or “alley” of the new Catalyst building at UNMC on March 27, 2025, about four weeks before the scheduled grand opening.

The remaining presentation featured Wade Watts, Regional Engagement Principal for the Defense Innovation Unit.

Wade Watts

Wade Watts

He said the goal of the unit is to incorporate innovators as quickly as possible into the Department of Defense, looking to create collaborations for inventions that can support the Department’s mission.

“If there’s one thing to take away from this,” he said, “take everything you know about military funding and the byzantine process for applying and all that: Throw that out the window.”

The Defense Innovation Unit hopes to simplify that process and encourage more collaborations, he said.

He also announced an upcoming Defense Innovation Forum event, which is planned for Sept. 11, 2025, at Mammel Hall on UNO’s Aksarben Campus. The event will feature a series of seminars or workshops aimed at helping people understand how to use the services and programming that the Defense Innovation Unit provides.

No further details were released about the planned forum.

The next Morning Edition is planned for April 24, 2025, in the Catalyst Forge Event Hall at 9 a.m.-11 a.m. The featured speaker will be UNMC surgeon and inventor, Jason Johanning, MD, who is expected to present his startup, Automated Assessments, LLC.

Read article

Dr. Siddique wins Napkin contest with surgical device

April 2, 2025 Comments (0) News

OMAHA, Nebraska (April 2, 2025)—UNeMed announced today the winner of the most recent “Back-o-the-Napkin Contest,” selecting a novel surgical device to receive the top prize of further development, guidance and prototyping.

Selected from a total of 14 entries, the winning idea was a device from UNMC surgeon and Professor, Aleem Siddique, MBBS, FACS, FACC. His idea shows promise for improving aortic surgery outcomes.  All entries for the contest were evaluated for their novelty and commercial potential. Although they weren’t selected for the prize, several other submissions are expected to move forward with additional testing or research.

“A heartfelt thank you to all the brilliant minds who poured their passion into this invention contest,” UNeMed licensing specialist and contest director Tyler Scherr, PhD, said. “Their creativity is the heartbeat of progress.”

The contest received entries from inventive faculty across 11 departments and two campuses. UNMC fielded entries from the Colleges of Medicine, Allied Health, and Pharmacy. UNO was represented by the Colleges of Education, Health and Human Sciences and Information Science and Technology.

“It was truly inspiring to witness such a variety of talent, with entrants from every corner of our colleges and departments coming together,” Dr. Scherr said. “The response to contests like this is a testament to the culture of creativity that’s been instilled and nurtured by University leadership.”

On average, UNeMed, the technology transfer and commercialization office for UNMC and UNO, will process about 100 new inventions every year from faculty, staff and students. The nature of inventions vary widely, ranging from software solutions and novel therapies to research tools and medical devices.

Contest entries were judged on the following criteria: patentability, feasibility and market size.

“Additive manufacturing and iterative prototyping are game-changers in medical device innovation,” Dr. Scherr said. “They let us sprint toward solutions, tweaking and perfecting as we go. By building, testing, and refining in real-time, we’re pushing the ball down the field faster, turning bold concepts into life-saving realities.”

The winning invention was titled “Retrograde cerebral protection (RCP) central catheter,” which proposes a new device design and method for performing RCP in the event the patient’s superior vena cava is inaccessible.

“I can’t overstate the value of retrograde cerebral protection,” the inventor, Dr. Siddique said. “It’s like a safety net for the brain, ensuring we keep oxygenated blood flowing where it’s needed most.”

UNeMed and the UNMC Great Plains IDeA-CTR co-sponsored the contest, in collaboration with the James and Karen Linder Maker Studio at UNMC’s McGoogan Library, the UNO Machining and Prototyping Core in the Department of Biomechanics and the UNeTech Institute.

Read article

March installment of Morning Edition moves to Catalyst, UNMC ER innovation to be featured

March 12, 2025 Comments (0) News

OMAHA, Nebraska (March 12, 2025)—A startup based on an innovation from a pair of UNMC’s most prolific inventors will headline the next “Idea Pub: Morning Edition” on Thursday, March 27, 2025.

The March installment will also be the first to be held in the Forge Event Hall at the new Catalyst space on the western edge of campus, on Saddle Creek Road. Free coffee and doughnuts will be provided, along with facility tours on a first-come, first-served basis. Parking will be available along 46th Street.

The event is set for 9-11 a.m. in the event center on the north end of the building. John Neubaum, co-founder of HemaGlobal, will be the featured speaker. Neubaum is also a design engineer at RD Tool and Engineering.

Poster for March 27, 2025 Idea Pub: Morning EditionHemaGlobal an Omaha startup built around an invention borne from UNMC’s innovative emergency medicine department. Department chair Michael Wadman, MD, and nurse Thang Nguyen, PhD, collaborated to create a device called “RapidSmear.” It is a portable device that allows clinical staff to quickly and easily prepare blood and bone marrow samples for microscopic examination.

Listed on more than 150 total inventions, Drs. Thang and Wadman received UNeMed’s 2015 Most Promising New Invention award for a portfolio of devices currently in development. They are also co-founders of UNeMed’s 2023 Startup of the Year, University Medical Devices, which has launched a new nasal sample collection device, MicroWash.

Catalyst joins UNeMed as sponsor for the event and will offer complimentary facility tours once presentations are complete.

UNeMed, the technology transfer and commercialization office for UNMC and UNO, created Morning Edition to help University innovators and entrepreneurs connect and collaborate with colleagues and experts from the venture capital and startup communities.

Morning Edition will also regularly feature “Office Hours” with UNeMed staff and Charlie Cuddy, who co-founded the Nebraska Startup Academy and MOVE Venture Capital. Office Hours creates the opportunity for faculty, students and staff to have one-on-one time with MOVE or UNeMed professionals to discuss new technologies or startup potential.

MOVE is a pre-seed and seed venture capital firm focused on investing in Nebraska technology startup companies. The Nebraska Startup Academy is a mentoring program for startup founders, investors and the local entrepreneurial community with the aim of building Nebraska into “an innovation hub in the Midwest.”

Morning Edition will be held on the final Thursday of every month and will continue to feature guest speakers from the Omaha entrepreneurial ecosystem. The event will provide UNMC and UNO innovators an opportunity to build new partnerships and allies that can help develop their innovative ideas and discoveries into products that help people.

The event is free and open to all, and complimentary coffee and doughnuts will be provided as long as supplies last.

Future planned dates and speakers are:

  • April 24: Automated Assessments/NE Innovation Labs
  • May 29: Grasshopper Health
  • June 26: Aprendo Cardiovascular Solutions
  • July 31: Wearable Algorithms
  • Aug. 28: PinkSteady
  • Sep. 25: Deep Health Diagnostics
  • Oct. 30: UNO NCITE

Morning Edition is part of UNeMed’s “Idea Pub,” a suite of entrepreneurial networking events that includes “Innovations & Libations” and “Startup Showcase.”

Read article

Beam Helmet featured at Feb. Morning Edition

February 28, 2025 Comments (0) News

Associate Professor of Nursing at UNMC, Elizabeth Beam, PhD, RN, discusses her innovative new healthcare device, the Beam Helmet, during the Feb. 27, 2025, Idea Pub: Morning Edition event.

Associate Professor of Nursing at UNMC, Elizabeth Beam, PhD, RN, discusses her innovative new healthcare device, the Beam Helmet, during the Feb. 27, 2025, Idea Pub: Morning Edition event.

OMAHA, Nebraska (February 27, 2025)—Idea Pub: Morning Edition, UNeMed’s networking event for university innovators, entrepreneurs and startup community members, met again today featuring UNMC’s innovative nursing professor, Elizabeth Beam, PhD.

UNeMed’s Business Development Manager and event organizer, Tyler Scherr, PhD, also announced that future Morning Editions will be held in the event space of the new Catalyst building in the Edge district, just west of Saddle Creek Road.

An innovative new healthcare device, the Beam Helmet, was on display—along with the technology it replaces—during the Feb. 27, 2025, Idea Pub: Morning Edition. The helmet was invented by UNMC Associate Professor of nursing, Elizabeth Beam, PhD, RN, who also spoke at the event.

An innovative new healthcare device, the Beam Helmet, was on display during the Feb. 27, 2025, Idea Pub: Morning Edition—along with the technology it replaces.

Dr. Beam gained recent notoriety as the primary inventor behind the Beam Helmet. Named UNeMed’s Most Promising New Invention in 2024, the helmet is an improved respirator system that dramatically improves the safety and comfort for healthcare providers when working around infectious diseases.

She spoke about the genesis of protective masks and respirators within the healthcare system, and how her innovation was borne from the challenges that arose during the recent COVID-19 pandemic.

A critically important factor with her innovation was bringing together the experience of clinical staff with researchers and engineers, who could all work together to better understand the problem, its challenges and find the most effective solution, she said.

UNeMed, the technology transfer and commercialization office for UNMC and UNO, sponsored the event, which will continue as a regular monthly series featuring guest speakers from the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Idea Pub strives to provide UNMC and UNO innovators an opportunity to build new partnerships and allies that can help develop their innovative ideas and discoveries into products that help people.

Morning Edition will continue on the last Thursday of every month, featuring a new speaker each time.

The next Morning Edition is planned for March 27, 2025, in the event space in the Catalyst building in the Edge District at 9 a.m.-11 a.m. UNeMed will announce the featured speaker at a later date.

Each Morning Edition will also feature “Office Hours,” with UNeMed and MOVE, a pre-seed and seed venture capital firm focused on investing in Nebraska technology startup companies. Office Hours creates the opportunity for faculty, students and staff to have one-on-one time with MOVE or UNeMed professionals to discuss new technologies or startup potential.

Read article

COPD monitoring startup lands massive grant

February 27, 2025 Comments (0) News

OMAHA, Nebraska & TEL AVIV, Israel (February 27, 2025)—A highly competitive and prestigious grant will support the development of an AI-powered home monitoring platform that can manage previously unpredictable chronic health conditions, according to a recent press release.

Omaha’s Right At Home, will collaborate with RespirAI Medical of Tel Aviv, Israel, on a monitoring program that is based on a research breakthrough borne from a cross-campus collaboration at the University of Nebraska.

The Irael-U.S. Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation (BIRD) grant will help expand the Tel-Aviv-based startup’s engagement in Omaha to further develop an AI-powered home monitoring platform for managing chronic pulmonary conditions, starting with COPD.

The project represents the culmination of a decade of development, starting with the pioneering research of former UNO biomechanics researcher Jenna Yentes, PhD, and UNMC pulmonologist Stephen Rennard, MD. That research is now the cornerstone of RespirAI’s innovative technology, which focuses on detecting what was once considered impossible: The early signs of a sudden flare-up of often deadly symptoms related to COPD. Now fully-funded, the collaboration with Right at Home will develop a comprehensive home monitoring system that can track multiple chronic conditions and warn of potential health deterioration.

Through the UNeTech institute’s early support and incubation, and UNeMed’s technology transfer expertise, RespirAI evolved from an academic discovery into a promising healthcare technology company.

“Watching RespirAI’s journey from a research concept to securing international funding is deeply satisfying,” Joe Runge, Associate Director of UNeTech Institute said in the release. “The collaboration exemplifies the forward-thinking support provided in the state of Nebraska: Translating world class research into products that solve problems for Nebraska companies.”

Read article

Beam Helmet will headline Feb. Morning Edition

February 24, 2025 Comments (0) News

OMAHA, Nebraska (February 24, 2025)—One of UNMC’s top inventors, Associate Professor Beth Beam, PhD, RN, will be the featured speaker at Thursday’s “Idea Pub: Morning Edition,” UNeMed’s startup networking event.

Set for Feb. 27, at 9-11 a.m. in the DRC II common area, Dr. Beam’s remarks are expected to outline the culture of innovation within the College of Nursing while charting the path of her own innovation from an idea to a fully functional prototype.

Poster for Feb. 27, 2025, Idea Pub: Morning EditionDr. Beam’s innovation, the Beam PAPR Helmet, was named UNeMed’s Most Promising New Invention during the 2024 Innovation Awards. An early version of the device was also the winner of UNeMed’s inaugural Back-of-the-Napkin Contest.

UNeMed, the technology transfer and commercialization office for UNMC and UNO, created Morning Edition to help University innovators and entrepreneurs connect and collaborate with colleagues and experts from the venture capital and startup communities.

Morning Edition will also regularly feature “Office Hours” with UNeMed staff and Charlie Cuddy, who co-founded the Nebraska Startup Academy and MOVE Venture Capital. Office Hours creates the opportunity for faculty, students and staff to have one-on-one time with MOVE or UNeMed professionals to discuss new technologies or startup potential.

MOVE is a pre-seed and seed venture capital firm focused on investing in Nebraska technology startup companies. The Nebraska Startup Academy is a mentoring program for startup founders, investors and the local entrepreneurial community with the aim of building Nebraska into “an innovation hub in the Midwest.”

Morning Edition will be held on the final Thursday of every month and will continue to feature guest speakers from the Omaha entrepreneurial ecosystem. The event will provide UNMC and UNO innovators an opportunity to build new partnerships and allies that can help develop their innovative ideas and discoveries into products that help people.

The event is free and open to all, and complimentary coffee and doughnuts will be provided on a first-come, first-served basis.

Additional featured speakers for future Morning Editions have not yet been announced.

Morning Edition is part of UNeMed’s “Idea Pub,” a suite of entrepreneurial networking events that includes “Innovations & Libations” and “Startup Showcase.”

Read article

UNeMed builds new way for inventors to submit ideas, innovations

February 6, 2025 Comments (0) News

University of Nebraska innovators who submit a new invention notification to UNeMed will receive an exclusive T-shirt, pennant and lapel pin at the annual Innovation Awards.

There is now a streamlined way for any faculty, students or staff to submit their new ideas and discoveries.

UNeMed, the technology transfer and commercialization office for UNMC and UNO, now has a digital form that inventors can use to submit their innovations, discoveries and ideas.

The New Invention Notification form is embedded on UNeMed’s website here: https://www.unemed.com/new-invention-notification-nin.

All inventions are accepted under strict confidentiality and will be reviewed by the UNeMed team to determine the potential intellectual property and commercial potential of the invention.

Submitting a New Invention Notification is only the first of several steps toward commercializing and innovation. UNeMed has provided a comprehensive Inventor’s Handbook (https://www.unemed.com/resources/inventor-handbook) that explains the entire process, potential outcomes and the obligations of everyone involved.

Physical copies of the handbook are also available. Contact UNeMed to request a free copy.

The traditional Microsoft Word version of the New Invention Notification will remain available and acceptable for any who wish to use it and send via email to unemed@unmc.edu. That form may be downloaded here: https://www.unemed.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/UNeMed_NewInventionNotification.doc

Read article

MTVA kicks off new year of Morning Edition

January 31, 2025 Comments (0) News

Lamonte Russell, supervisor of the Maverick Technology Venture Alliance, delivers the featured presentation at the Jan. 30, 2024, Idea Pub: Morning Edition where he outlines the services his team provides for University of Nebraska Innovators.

OMAHA, Nebraska (January 31, 2025)—UNeMed opened its 2025 slate of networking seminars Thursday with the return of the popular Idea Pub event, Morning Edition.

The featured speaker was Lamonte Russell, supervisor of the Maverick Technology Venture Alliance, a student-led business strategy program that was named the 2024 Innovation Champion during UNeMed’s 2024 Innovation Awards. The Maverick Technology Venture Alliance, or MTVA, operates within the University of Nebraska’s startup incubator, UNeTech Institute.

Russell, the Strategy and Ventures Manager at UNeTech, described the MTVA process for helping University of Nebraska inventors develop their ideas into working prototypes; or how to get started on building a company around a new invention.

Several members of the MTVA team also spoke, including Brent Clark, PhD, who is also the Associate Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Franchising at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

As several inventors in the room nodded their heads, Dr. Clark likened an invention to its inventor as the emotional equivalent of a child to a parent.

“We try to help the inventor see through the emotion,” he said, “to see if this a real, marketable invention.”

The end result of the efforts typically results in either a working prototype or a 20-30 page report that outlines the path for an inventor looking to start their own company. Sometimes it’s both.

One of MTVA’s more recent clients is Elizabeth Beam, PhD, the UNMC nursing professor behind the Beam PAPR Helemt—UNeMed’s 2024 Most Promising New Invention. She also spoke to the gathering, describing how the MTVA helped her bring to life her idea for a better helmet that could protect healthcare providers from infectious diseases during an outbreak.

She said “the biggest challenge of being an inventor is knowing how to talk” to the wide range of people needed to transform an idea into a product. The MTVA helped her navigate the process that first allowed people to wear her design in virtual reality and eventually guide the engineers who helped build the first prototype.

Dr. Beam will return for a more detailed discussion of her invention and its developmental journey. She is set to be the featured speaker of the next Idea Pub: Morning Edition on Thursday, Feb. 27 at 9-11 a.m. in the DRC II commons.

UNeMed, the technology transfer and commercialization office for UNMC and UNO, sponsored the event, which will continue as a regular monthly series featuring guest speakers from the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Idea Pub strives to provide UNMC and UNO innovators an opportunity to build new partnerships and allies that can help develop their innovative ideas and discoveries into products that help people.

Morning Edition will continue in 2025 on the last Thursday of every month, featuring a new speaker each time. Each Morning Edition will also feature “Office Hours,” with UNeMed and MOVE, a pre-seed and seed venture capital firm focused on investing in Nebraska technology startup companies. Office Hours creates the opportunity for faculty, students and staff to have one-on-one time with MOVE or UNeMed professionals to discuss new technologies or startup potential.

Read article

Year in Review: Highlights from 2024

December 23, 2024 Comments (0) Blog

by Charles Litton, UNeMed | December 23, 2024

It’s that time again where we look back at 2024. In keeping with tradition, here’s look at some of our more popular and important stories, events and happenings during the previous year:

1. Idea Pub: Morning Edition

The initial launch—and continued success—of our new monthly networking event, Idea Pub: Morning Edition, was UNeMed’s most popular and consistent hot spot on this site. We created Morning Edition as a way to help University innovators and entrepreneurs connect and collaborate with colleagues and experts from the venture and startup community. Perhaps it’s a testament to Tyler Scherr’s tireless work on the event, but its popularity remained strong. Each Morning Edition featured a short, 10- to 15-minute talk from a community partner involved in the local innovation ecosystem. Drawing the most attention were the articles that announced the new series and offered sneak-peek tours of UNMC’s new Catalyst building, which was which still under construction at the time. In fact, four of UNeMed’s top 10 news stories and eight of the top 20 were all related to Idea Pub coverage.

2. Innovation Week

The Innovation Awards, and the week of events leading up to it, remain a top driver of traffic. Coverage of both the 2023 and 2024 Innovation Awards were top stories, and few things garnered more clicks and downloads than the Innovation Awards programs.

3. Parkinson’s treatment licensed to COYA

In a year filled with success stories, announcing a new partnership was among the first. Brokering licensing agreements is among our chief goals, but joining forces with COYA Therapeutics, was more than just checking a box. The UNMC innovation involved new approach to treating several neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson’s, a perfect fit for COYA’s existing portfolio of experimental treatments. COYA recently announced that plans for their Parkinson’s treatment will soon advance to Phase I testing.

4. MIRA clears FDA

The good news continued in February 2024 with Virtual Incision’s welcome news that their surgical robotics platform, MIRA, was now approved for human use in adult patients undergoing colectomy procedures. Two decades in the making, with more than 200 patents under the bridge, one of Nebraska’s most successful collaborations was finally clear to begin realizing its potential. Laparoscopic procedures will now be more possible and more accessible for complicated procedures and more remote areas…including low-Earth orbit.

5. Boot Camp 2024

Our technology transfer boot camp remains one of UNeMed’s most popular offerings. We still plan to expand the intensive commercialization training sessions once we move into our new space in the UNMC Catalyst facility sometime next year.

6. Top 100 US Patents…again

News about the University of Nebraska’s high-success rate at securing Unites States patents is becoming and equally popular and routine. In March we announced that Nebraska landed 78th among global institutions for issued U.S. Patents, our the seventh consecutive year in the top 100. All told, inventors in the University system accrued 46 U.S. patents, which was go enough for 55th among domestic institutions, ninth among Big Ten schools.

7. Top innovator featured

We don’t often get a chance to take a deep dive with our inventors, so the feature about one of UNMC’s most prolific innovators was a welcome break from tradition: Not just for us, but for readers as well. This piece featuring the insights and motivations of Janina Baranowska-Kortylewicz, PhD, was a fascinating piece that remains a popular stop on the site, even though it originally published eight months ago.

8. MicroWash Investment

Yet a third piece of good news landed in February last year with the announcement that a startup built around a UNMC innovation had just landed a $1.6 million seed funding round. University Medical Devices announced it would use the investments to get its cornerstone device “into the hands of the clinicians.” True to their word, earlier this month, UMD announced the successful commercialization with the official launch of MicroWash.

9. Nursing innovations

It should be no secret that many of the most innovative people in our orbit have at least one thing in common: Nursing. For example, the innovator behind the aforementioned MicroWash, Thang Nguyen, PhD, is a nurse in UNMC/Nebraska Medicine emergency medicine department. He has submitted a record 80-plus inventions over the years. But this hugely popular feature about our innovative friends in the College of Nursing was not only a nod to the incredible ingenuity of nurses, but also long overdue recognition for women in STEM. As a side note, we didn’t set out to focus on nursing. That all the subjects featured in the article turned out to be from the College of Nursing was, in hindsight, a predictable coincidence. But we have several more stories to tell about innovative women in STEM from all over our Omaha campuses at UNMC and UNO, so stay tuned!

10. 2024 Annual Report

The release of our annual report has become a fitting mainstay of popularity on this annual list of highlights.

Classics:
Several posts from previous years remain popular and relevant, particularly those that focus on day-to-day operations and legal issues associated with intellectual property.

  1. The Importance of Technology Transfer
  2. Five important aspects of copyrights that you should know
  3. Veins and arteries are just pipes, right?
  4. How to determine who is an inventor on a patent: Unraveling inventorship vs. authorship
  5. Technology Transfer 101: Defining Research Commercialization

Read article

UNeTech kicks off Morning Edition in 2025

December 18, 2024 Comments (0) News


OMAHA, Nebraska (December 18, 2024)—UNeMed’s startup networking event, “Idea Pub: Morning Edition,” will return from its holiday hiatus on Thursday, Jan. 30, at 9-11 a.m. in the DRC II common area.

Morning Edition will feature brief remarks from Lamonte Russell, the Strategy and Ventures Manager the UNeTech Institute, the University of Nebraska’s startup incubator.

Poster for Jan 30, 2025 Idea Pub: Morning EditionRussell leads UNeTech’s Maverick Technology Venture Alliance program, which UNeMed crowned as the 2024 Innovation Champion during the 2024 Innovation Awards in November.

UNeMed, the technology transfer and commercialization office for UNMC and UNO, created Morning Edition to help University innovators and entrepreneurs connect and collaborate with colleagues and experts from the venture capital and startup communities.

Morning Edition will also regularly feature “Office Hours” with UNeMed staff and Charlie Cuddy, who co-founded the Nebraska Startup Academy and MOVE Venture Capital. Office Hours creates the opportunity for faculty, students and staff to have one-on-one time with MOVE or UNeMed professionals to discuss new technologies or startup potential.

MOVE is a pre-seed and seed venture capital firm focused on investing in Nebraska technology startup companies. The Nebraska Startup Academy is a mentoring program for startup founders, investors and the local entrepreneurial community with the aim of building Nebraska into “an innovation hub in the Midwest.”

Morning Edition will be held on the final Thursday of every month and will continue to feature guest speakers from the Omaha entrepreneurial ecosystem. The event will provide UNMC and UNO innovators an opportunity to build new partnerships and allies that can help develop their innovative ideas and discoveries into products that help people.

The event is free and open to all, and complimentary coffee and doughnuts will be provided on a first-come, first-served basis.

Additional featured speakers for future Morning Editions have not yet been announced.

Morning Edition is part of UNeMed’s “Idea Pub,” a suite of entrepreneurial networking events that includes “Innovations & Libations” and “Startup Showcase.”

Read article

UNMC startup launches MicroWash product

December 5, 2024 Comments (0) News

OMAHA, Nebraska (December 5, 2024)—University Medical Devices, a UNMC startup and UNeMed’s 2023 Startup of the Year, today announced the launch of its first specimen collection method, MicroWash. Developed by UNMC ER nurse Thang Nguyen, PhD, and Emergency Medicine Chair, Michael Wadman, MD, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, MicroWash is a comfortable and highly sensitive nasal lavage specimen collection device providing a less invasive alternative to nasal swabs.

In the coming months, the device is set to be piloted within select sectors of the healthcare industry to evaluate how well it integrates with existing clinical workflows. This will help refine the device before MicroWash’s broader market release in 2025.

“The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the need for higher-sensitivity test sampling options when it comes to upper respiratory infections – and as a group of medical professionals, we knew it would be critical to evolve beyond the swab,” said UMD Founder, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President Nicholas Lorenzo, MD, MHCM, CPE, FAAPL. “That’s why we created MicroWash. This initial introduction of the device is just our first step in bringing this markedly improved sampling experience to the wider medical community.”

MicroWash is a fast, easy-to-use and comfortable nasal sample device that can be used by healthcare professionals with minimal training in diverse clinical settings. It involves washing the nasal passage with sterile saline to collect a sample from the nose. The saline effluent specimen can then be used for diagnostic testing. Both internal and independent academic research supports MicroWash’s superiority, from sample sensitivity to user experience.

“Testing aversion has long been a barrier to effective disease management – We certainly saw that with COVID-19,” Lorenzo said. “We knew there was an urgent need to design a device that delivers superior sample sensitivity while prioritizing comfort and safety for both patients and providers. Let’s face it – no one enjoys a swab jammed up their nose. With MicroWash, that discomfort is history, and we have a better shot at mitigating future global pandemics.”

In addition to increased comfort and ease of use, the MicroWash:

  • Collects a 2 mL sample, with an up to 49% increase in sensitivity compared to nasal swab samples
  • Has a long three-year shelf life
  • Leverages the same lab processes with fewer extraction errors
  • Decreases clinician infection risk and is easily and reliably administered

Discover how MicroWash is setting a new standard in sample collection and sign up for updates on market availability.

A video using an early prototype demonstrates how the technology works while improving on traditional swabs:


 

Read article