Every year the Spencer S. Eccles Eccles Health Sciences Library and the J. Willard Marriott Library combine forces and participate in the U’s Bench 2 Bedside (B2B) program. This major competition for students who have developed medical innovations to significantly improve or save human lives.
Brilliant Innovations Improving Health Care
Over the course of seven months, student teams form startup companies to identify needed medical products and interventions. They then design solutions. Each team has access to healthcare providers from a broad range of specialties, as well as engineering and business professionals from the Salt Lake community. Opinion leaders and stakeholders are also involved in the development. In that seven-month time period, students define a clinical problem, evaluate the patent landscape, determine a regulatory course, create a prototype and develop a market strategy for commercialization.
In April students present their team projects at the annual B2B competition held at the Utah State Capitol. Projects are presented by team members, then evaluated and scored by a VIP panel of judges. Top teams are awarded milestone funding to support further project development.
Judges from the Spencer S. Eccles Health Sciences Library and the J. Willard Marriott Library for the 2024 Bench 2 Bedside competition.
2024 Winner
This year, the library team selected AdhesioNix as the winning team. This student group developed a novel syringe accessory to prevent adhesions that may occur in mothers during a caesarian-section surgery.
According to the students, their product addresses critical needs in post-C-section care by combatting the effects of adhesions, which are a complication that impacts patient recovery. Their device features a novel tip for syringes, which creates a consistent barrier between cut tissues. This minimizes adhesion risks and ensures optimal healing.
Three U students make up the winning team: Amanda LeMatty (M.S. student, Department of Biomedical Engineering), Robert Falconer (Ph.D. student, Department of Biomedical Engineering), and Jake Bell (first-year medical student, University of Utah School of Medicine).
The $5,000 Library Award was given to AdhesioNix by the libraries for demonstrating that they utilized library resources, services and assistance, and because they effectively applied the knowledge and information received into their project.