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Patient Safety Innovators Continue Momentum: One-Year Updates on CES Grand Award Winners

Type: News

Focus Area: Patient Safety

One year after JHF spotlighted six teams at the Patient Safety Technology Challenge Grand Awards during CES 2025, members of the cohort are reporting early milestones that suggest promising pathways from prototype to practice.

Three teams, Bloom Surgical, Reel Free, and SoundPass, shared an update on their progress with technology refinement, pilot planning, and partner outreach, with an emphasis on demonstrating real-world value for clinicians and patients.

"What stands out most is how deeply grounded these teams remain in real patient and clinician experiences. Whether it’s preventing falls at home, improving surgical visibility, or making emergency brain procedures safer, each of these innovations reflects a commitment to reducing harm where it matters most. It’s incredibly heartening to see that commitment translate into real progress,” said PRHI Safety Consultant Ariana Longley, MPH.

Since kicking off in 2022, the Challenge has inspired over 1,200 patient safety teams to work on solutions at 87 different events, including hackathons, pitch competitions and business plan competitions across the United States, Canada, and England with over $200,000 in prizes given to innovators and 100 different patient safety and healthcare experts engaged in judging and supporting competitions and participants.

“It was incredibly ambitious to bring the problems within patient safety to young innovators in every innovation hub across the nation, and we continue to be blown away by the results,” Dr. Feinstein said. “We credit Ariana for being the heart, soul, and key driver of success of this program.”

Jacob Sheffield with an image of LaparoVision in action.

Bloom Surgical

Bloom Surgical was the winner of the Development Stage Award at the Grand Awards in recognition of its development of LaparoVision, an Origami-inspired, windshield wiper for laparoscopes that ensures surgeons maintain clear visibility during procedures without removing the scope. This device reduces delays and improves patient safety during high-stakes moments in surgery.

After receiving the Patient Safety Award, Bloom Surgical leveraged the funding and connections from the Grand Awards to usher it through due diligence with multiple investor groups and raised a $1 million pre-seed round last summer of 2025.

Bloom Surgical has continued developing its "miniature windshield wiper" device for laparoscopes to improve minimally invasive surgery, allowing surgeons to retain focus at the surgical site without losing visualization.
CEO & Co-founder Jacob Sheffield reported that Bloom Surgical is currently taking its first product (10mm compatible version) through verification and validation testing, with a plan to submit it to the Food & Drug Administration in the second quarter of this year. They will then take their 5mm devices through the FDA and begin human pilot testing by the end of this year.

Alex Pollock with the Reelmate Remote.

Reel Free

Reel Free, a Grand Rapids–based medical device startup founded by brothers Alexander and Austin Pollock, was inspired by their grandfather’s repeated falls over oxygen tubing during hospice care. They began developing their solution, the Reelmate Remote, a motorized device that remotely manages oxygen tubing to reduce fall risk and helps patients move more safely at home, as students at Michigan State University. They earned the Development Stage Runner-up Award at the Grand Awards at CES for their innovation.

Alex Pollock, co-founder of Reel Free, shared that since the Patient Safety Technology Challenge Grand Awards at CES, Reel Free officially went to market in February 2025.

“In just under a year, we are now serving customers in all 50 states and have scaled operations to a six-person team as we continue to grow production and fulfillment capabilities,” Pollock said. “The product has been incredibly well received.”

He highlighted that Reel Free has received over 150 heartfelt 5-star reviews from customers who have shared how it has increased safety, independence, and peace of mind for oxygen users and their families.

“Hearing directly from families about the difference the device has made in preventing falls and improving daily comfort has been the most meaningful milestone for us,” said Pollock, who created the invention with his brother as a solution for their grandfather.

Reel Free is currently preparing to enter a seed funding round to further scale production and expand its marketing efforts. Additionally, it has plans to enter the local Durable Medical Equipment market within the coming months to broaden access through established healthcare distribution channels.

Kyril L. Cole, MD, MPH, MBA and image of EchoVent in action.

SoundPass

Kyril L. Cole, MD, MPH, MBA, co-founder and director of research, said that since receiving the Idea Stage Award at the Grand Award at CES, SoundPass rapidly advanced its technology EchoVent from a promising concept into a near design-freeze medical device platform aimed at improving safety during one of neurosurgery’s most urgent procedures: external ventricular drain (EVD) placement.

EVD placement remains a lifesaving, but largely “blind” (no image guidance) bedside procedure performed hundreds of thousands of times worldwide each year. Misplacement can lead to repeat passes, hemorrhage, infection, and treatment delays. EchoVent addresses this gap by providing real-time ultrasound visualization of catheter trajectory and ventricular entry during placement — bringing image guidance to a procedure that has historically relied on estimation alone.

With the assistance of the Grand Awards prize funds from JHF, SoundPass completed several additional cadaveric validation studies over the past year. These studies enabled major refinements in usability, ergonomics, and imaging performance, positioning the core ultrasound guidance technology for design-freeze readiness. The company’s first live animal study is now planned for the second quarter of 2026 to demonstrate proof of concept in a physiological model.

In parallel, SoundPass is completing development of the remaining system components, an echolucent ventricular catheter and compact bedside imaging tower, designed to integrate seamlessly into emergency and ICU workflows.

“Clinical adoption planning has accelerated significantly. The team has now engaged over 250 neurosurgeons across academic and community centers, including detailed usability discussions with more than 50 surgeons to finalize ergonomic design prior to freeze. Department chairs at multiple institutions have expressed strong interest to trial our device, and SoundPass is preparing for future pilot trials across six academic hospital sites,” Dr. Cole said.

The company is also transitioning toward commercial readiness. A utility patent is in progress, and several investment groups are aligned to support approximately $600,000 in early funding in the first half of 2026. To support this next stage, SoundPass is actively recruiting a full-time CEO to lead the company through regulatory clearance and market entry.

“Over the past year, the support of the Jewish Healthcare Foundation has helped accelerate EchoVent from prototype development into a clinically-oriented patient safety platform preparing for first-in-human evaluation. We are very grateful for the Jewish Healthcare Foundation’s support to support our mission to make emergency brain procedures safer and more reliable for every patient, not just those at specialized centers,” Dr. Cole said.

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