Rene Krantz

Taking aim at advancing smart medtech innovation, the SEMI Nano-Bio Materials Consortium (NBMC), in collaboration with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), in March 2020 identified 12 organizations from industry and academia as recipients of $20.4 million in funding, leveraging $10.7 million of cost-share from award recipients. Unique to this round – the sixth in NBMC’s eight years – is a pilot program for NBMC and AFRL to collaborate more closely and share more resources. As part of that effort, AFRL is contributing additional funding to seven of the 12 projects to enable its researchers to work alongside industry on the projects in the new AFRL-Industry Co-Development Program. After being matched to a project during pre-RFP discussions – also known as the White Paper Stage – AFRL researchers were designated as NBMC Consortium Project Investigators before collaborating with industry on the second stage of proposal development. Once contract negotiations between NBMC and the proposing entity wrap up, the AFRL investigators will participate in the development of smart medtech innovations. “This is a new way for AFRL researchers to participate as project performers responsible for contributing to project milestones and deliverables, in addition to providing program management oversight that AFRL has employed for past NBMC projects,” said Dr. Jeremy Ward, past NBMC government lead and current participant in the AFRL Entrepreneurial Opportunity Program. “This program should enable technical risk-reduction for industry by leveraging AFRL competencies and U.S. Air Force aeromedical and airmen performance mission connectedness and ultimately help speed the development of dual-use smart medtech,” added Matt Dalton, AFRL Materials and Manufacturing Directorate program manager and NBMC Governing Council member. “We need efficient mechanisms to leverage research being done outside of AFRL,” said Sharma, who is also senior technical lead for Cognitive Neuroscience at AFRL's 711th Human Performance Wing. “If someone is developing a groundbreaking technology that can be helpful for our airmen, then let’s work with them so that we have an opportunity at an early stage to actively shape that research for Air Force-relevant use cases. Similarly, with this co-development initiative, external researchers will also get an opportunity to work alongside world-class researchers at AFRL and, through those interactions, get insights into the needs of the operational community.” “The AFRL-Industry Co-Development Program strengthens the work between AFRL and industry to better target the strategic needs of the Air Force for dual-use technologies while more closely aligning with commercial market requirements,” said Dr. Melissa Grupen-Shemansky, SEMI CTO and Executive Director of NBMC. “This new collaboration will enable the growth of the ecosystem critical to bringing the latest smart medtech innovations to market while making the technology’s supply chain more sustainable and resilient.” SEMI NBMC connects military, industry and academia for research and development into the practical use of nano-biomaterials. The 2020 RFP targeted nano-bio materials for wearables, flexible and alternative power sources for wearables, and open concepts for wearables for diagnostics and ambulatory monitoring. These technologies address the critical need to monitor, evaluate and mitigate stress experienced by workers in high-pressure occupations – such as aviation, emergency, critical care and aeromedical evacuation – to enhance their warfighter performance and help ensure their well-being. For more information on SEMI NBMC, our R D funding projects, and how you can help shape the direction of our funding programs, visit our website or contact me at [email protected]. Learn more about our projects at the 2021 Global Smart MedTech Symposium July 28-29 and August 4-5, 2021. For more information about the NBMC-AFRL collaboration, see the 2020 Smart MedTech Virtual Workshop agenda. This article borrows from a U.S. Air Force press release on May 27, 2021. Rene Krantz is program manager for SEMI NBMC Smart MedTech.

Innovations in the public sector are springboards for new products in digital health and personalized medicine. Since 2013, SEMI NBMC, funded by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), has been evaluating industry needs and soliciting proposals for new research into the foundations of device development and manufacturing of medically actionable devices.SEMI NBMC has run 17 separate programs with more than two dozen organizational participants developing materials, electronics, microfluidics, manufacturing processes and algorithms to create low-cost, wearable sensors. Most of these integrated sensing systems communicate wirelessly and incorporate high-performance silicon devices that are designed to move with the individual. Each of the projects was the result of a proposal received during NBMC’s annual proposal cycle. ​What’s Next in MedTech Device Development?We invite you to join the teams at SEMI, NBMC and AFRL to answer that question in a virtual series of sessions over the four weeks in August.For the past five years, NBMC has been conducting similar sessions for roadmapping the development of non-invasive human performance monitoring technology and manufacturing. The information feeds into the topics for upcoming RFPs, including the one we expect to release in September 2020. Previous Workshops (formerly entitled Blood Sweat and Tears) brought together industry and university innovators to explore current product research and provided excellent insights for the proposal evaluation teams. We believe the insights are also very useful to the business and technology planning direction for researchers and developers working on these products.Our focus is on early-adopting markets – medical professionals and their patients, Army and Air Force personnel and high-performance athletes.​ In this time of social-distancing and overall hesitancy to approach hospitals and medical offices, medical monitoring that provides medically-actionable intelligence is of even greater significance.But Doesn’t FitBitTM Have that Covered?Advancements are coming fast and furious – but medical professionals and insurance companies are struggling to distinguish innovations that provide actionable intelligence from those that provide generalized, non-actionable data.The workshop will focus on the medically relevant information that requires a great deal more accuracy, testing and certification before decisions are made. It is the innovations in this field that will lay the groundwork for new products in digital health and personalized medicine. Additionally, they are leading to advancements in aeromedical monitoring and diagnostics to support the U.S. Air Force’s mission to improve patient care during emergency air transport. The targeted future state is real-time monitoring of biochemical and physiological markers that can guide optimization of human performance and health. ​The SMART MedTech Virtual Workshop Series will link markets with manufacturing for medical relevancy – addressing both ends of the ecosystem. This forum will bring together the players across the growing range of industries that are entering or advancing human monitoring applications to:​ share competitive ideas that may be applied to product development​, assess roadblocks in bringing human monitoring products to market, and form partnerships that have become key in overcoming obstacles to successful manufacturing and product development. ​ Join the experts who are at the cutting edge of product design and manufacturing techniques. Indeed, the success of previous workshops was based on the unique membership of NBMC, where product and manufacturing-oriented engineers from industry, universities, and government labs form teams and pool resources (financial as well as technical) to accelerate human monitoring product development into manufacturing prototypes.Can’t Attend the Workshop?All sessions will be recorded and available for watching and re-watching on-demand. Join our interest list to receive regular updates on SEMI NBMC activities, including notification of the RFP expected to be available in October 2020.Find out more about the Smart MedTech Initiative and the NBMC Programs at our website.Rene Krantz is Director of R D Programs Business Development at SEMI. She is the primary manager of SEMI Smart MedTech Initiative and NBMC programs. Contact Rene at [email protected].