Page 115 - Innovation Delaware 2019

INNOVATION BY SECTOR
HEALTH CARE
From student startups to renowned health systems, Delaware is a hotbed of
Cmedical research BY ROGER MORRIS
all Amy Cowperthwait the Now she is CEO of Avkin, a accidental entrepreneur. Delaware company whose mission is
Cowperthwait is a to improve the learning experience School of Nursing faculty and training of health-care employees. member at the University of Delaware, Avkin now has 16 employees, plus five
and a few years ago she decided that the simulated patient training being given to medical personnel could be substantially improved. Her first step was to team up with the UD theater program to create a course that taught students how to simulate different con- ditions and act out symptoms. She then used these “human simulators” to train medical personnel and patient family members. Next, she designed wearable technology with sensory feedback so students could practice performing procedures on the actors.
“I won a national contest using my design,” Cowperthwait says.
products on the market and one on the way, including a hospital-acquired infections (HAI) package aimed at avoiding preventable infections in the training process.
None of this would have been pos- sible, Cowperthwait says, without the business advice and project funding
by the local health-care community.
In 2015, she received a $6,000 award through the University of Delaware’s Hen Hatch business pitch program and later a Delaware Bioscience Center for Advanced Technology award for an additional $75,000. In 2017, Avkin re- ceived a $750,000 QED (proof-of-con-
cept) grant from the Philadelphia-based regional University City Science Center. Health-care startups such as Avkin
and new product innovations are a growing business in Delaware for several reasons. First, several hospi- tals and medical training facilities are located in the state, in addition to the research and training resources at the University of Delaware. Second, there are a large number of trained research personnel in the state in all aspects of medical science, from lab assistants
to former lab directors. This is partly because the then-DuPont Co. — once a major employer in this category — shed most of its life sciences and phar- maceuticals businesses over the past two decades. Some former employees launched their own companies, while some joined other companies.
INNOVATION DELAWARE 113
COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE COLLEGE OF HEALTH SCIENCES