Dr. Matthew Meyer will use CCF funding for computer vision-assisted analysis to identify and eliminate unnecessary waste of sterile surgical items.

RICHMOND, VIRGINIA, UNITED STATES, November 22, 2023 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation (VIPC) today announced that the University of Virginia (UVA) has been awarded a Commonwealth Commercialization Fund (CCF) grant for $75,000 in support of research conducted by Dr. Matthew Meyer. VIPC’s CCF programs have distributed more than $53 million to Virginia-based startups, entrepreneurs, and university-based inventors since 2012 in support of critical early technology testing and market validation efforts.

In operating rooms across the U.S., an estimated 25-80% of sterile surgical items (SSI) are opened ahead of or during a procedure that aren’t used. Once opened, single-use items must be disposed of and other surgical instruments must be recalibrated, re-sterilized, and repackaged. Health systems, afflicted by supply chain and budgetary constraints, are eager to eliminate unnecessary waste and conserve SSI.

Dr. Matthew Meyer is developing patent-pending computer vision software in response to this costly and environmentally unfriendly problem. His innovative, technology-based solution will monitor and interpret usage of sterile surgical items and offer perioperative administrators actionable insights to reduce operating costs, minimize operating room garbage, and conserve health system resources in a supply-chain-constrained environment. In addition, it will have a minimal footprint and will not impact OR workflow.

During the CCF grant, Dr. Meyer and his team will test camera types and their locations in the OR to ensure high-quality view of the scrub table and continue to optimize the software to improve the efficiency of asynchronous SSI usage analysis.

“Operating rooms have chosen superficial simplicity over actual efficiency, leading to billions of dollars lost and significant waste. This unnecessary waste contributes to environmental pollution and rising healthcare costs,” said Dr. Matthew Meyer, Associate Professor at the UVA School of Medicine and nationally recognized expert in perioperative sustainability. “My team is the first to use computer vision to assess intraoperative utilization of SSI and we will be piloting our system locally in UVA Health ORs. We want to help hospitals reduce that waste and their carbon footprint, and appreciate that CCF saw the impact our solution will have on health systems across Virginia and the nation.”

“A new national focus is being brought to reducing hospital greenhouse gas emissions and waste through the Sustainable Healthcare Certification program of The Joint Commission, and the computer vision-assisted software Dr. Meyer is proposing directly supports this initiative,” said Hina Mehta, VIPC’s Director for University Programs. “While there is a lot that still needs to be learned, understood, and implemented before widespread adoption occurs, CCF funding will be instrumental in addressing the endemic of excess waste from operating rooms and expediting Dr. Meyer’s vision for more sustainable healthcare solutions.”

The University of Virginia is a public research university based in Charlottesville, Va.

About Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation (VIPC)
VIPC: Connecting innovators with opportunities. As the nonprofit operations arm of the Virginia Innovation Partnership Authority (VIPA), VIPC is the commercialization and seed stage economic development driver in the Commonwealth that leads funding, infrastructure, and policy initiatives to support Virginia's innovators, entrepreneurs, startups, and market development strategies. VIPC collaborates with local, regional, state, and federal partners to support the expansion and diversification of Virginia’s economy.

Programs include: Virginia Venture Partners (VVP) | VVP Fund of Funds (SSBCI) | Virginia Founders Fund (VFF) | Commonwealth Commercialization Fund (CCF) | Petersburg Founders Fund (PFF) | Smart Communities | The Virginia Smart Community Testbed | The Virginia Unmanned Systems Center | Virginia Advanced Air Mobility Alliance (VAAMA) | The Public Safety Innovation Center | Entrepreneurial Ecosystems | Regional Innovation Fund (RIF) | Federal Funding Assistance Program (FFAP) for SBIR & STTR | University Partnerships | Startup Company Mentoring & Engagement. For more information, please visit www.VirginiaIPC.org. Follow VIPC on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), and LinkedIn.

About the Commonwealth Commercialization Fund (CCF)
VIPC’s Commonwealth Commercialization Fund (CCF) accepts applications and awards funding on a rolling basis to Virginia’s small businesses and university-based innovators. For Virginia’s academic and nonprofit research community, the competitive grant program seeks to fund high-potential Virginia-based academic research teams that are developing technologies with strong commercial potential. The grants support early technology and market validation efforts such as customer discovery, market research, business model validation, the development of prototypes or minimum viable products (MVPs), customer pilots, and intellectual property protection, team development, and more. For more information on funding opportunities and eligibility requirements, or to apply, visit the CCF pages from www.VirginiaIPC.org.

Angela Costello, Vice President of Communications
Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation (VIPC)
angela.costello@VirginiaIPC.org
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