ASP Health and Planet Innovation Receive 2022 Medical Design Excellence Award


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“Our focus is on meeting the needs of patients and healthcare professionals through the commercialization of our platform for use during Rapid On-Site Evaluation (ROSE) procedures,” said Hari Subramanian, ASP Health EVP of Marketing and Product Development.

ASP Health, a private medical device company focused on developing and commercializing innovative sample preparation technology to enhance and expand cancer diagnosis, and Planet Innovation (PI), ASP Health’s product development and commercialization partner, have received the Bronze Award in the Testing and Diagnostic Product and Systems category for their innovative, FDA-registered automated sample preparation system. The company introduced its novel system at the American Society of Cytopathology (ASC) 69th Annual Scientific Meeting in November 2021.

The ASP Health platform was honored in the 2022 Medical Design Excellence Awards (MDEA), the premier awards program for the MedTech industry. Since its inception in 1998, the mission of the MDEAs has been to recognize significant achievements in medical product design and engineering that improve the quality of healthcare delivery and accessibility.

Judging of each year’s MDEA competition is conducted by an impartial, multidisciplinary panel of expert jurors—comprised of clinicians, engineers, and designers—who carefully review all submissions, then narrow them down to a select group of exceptional products in each category. Jurors score each entry based on five criteria: design and engineering innovations, user-related innovations, benefits to overall healthcare, differentiation in the market, and benefits to patients.

“Our focus is on meeting the needs of patients and healthcare professionals through the commercialization of our platform for use during Rapid On-Site Evaluation (ROSE) procedures,” said Hari Subramanian, ASP Health EVP of Marketing and Product Development. “Our clinical advisors helped us each step of the way in providing valuable feedback on the usability of this system. They helped make the design extremely intuitive and easy to use with limited training. We believe this played a critical role in us being recognized by the MDEA.”

ASP Health President and CEO John W. Hart added, “We are grateful for our multi-year collaboration with PI. They have helped us shape and execute the development of this product in line with our strategic plan, and we are honored to share this MDEA recognition with the PI team.”

The ROSE procedure evaluates the tissue sample acquired through fine-needle aspiration (FNA) to quickly determine if a sufficient sample has been obtained for evaluation by a hospital’s Cytopathology department. ROSE is growing in both use and importance throughout the United States despite the shortage of qualified clinicians.

PLATFORM WILL HELP GUIDE PHYSICIANS’ DECISIONS ON CANCER TREATMENT OPTIONS

The ASP System is ROSE ready#_edn1 [[i]] and is designed to help physicians develop treatment plans tailored to the needs of each patient. ASP Health and PI conducted extensive market research to identify the need for the features that comprise the ASP System:


  • a mobile, automated instrument with a simple and intuitive user interface,
  • requisite consumables to reduce the risk of sample contamination,
  • retention of remaining sample in a collection vial for future evaluation, and
  • the ability to complete the entire process in under two minutes.

ASP Health and PI have worked together closely throughout the entire product development process – from the product-market fit analysis through early prototypes, to building the alpha and beta units, and now ramping up manufacturing for the instrument and consumables.

“PI measures our success by the success of our partners. This is the sort of collaborative partnership PI loves,” said Planet Innovation North America President Anthony White. “We’ve really enjoyed being able to work closely with a pioneering team helping to productize a novel solution to improve patient outcomes. The ASP Health platform addresses a real market need. It will make the ROSE procedure more reliable and efficient for hospitals and clinics, thereby improving the diagnosis process for cancer patients.”

CLINICALLY SIGNIFICANT FEATURES AND BENEFITS The ASP System is fast, efficient, and able to deliver consistent, high-quality samples that are equal to, or better than, those prepared manually. The instrument is lightweight and portable, so it can be placed on a cart and easily moved into operating theaters as needed, with a simple workflow requiring only minimal training to operate.

For institutions that do not perform ROSE or have challenges in their current ROSE offering during fine-needle aspiration (FNA) procedures, the ASP System offers:

  • quality samples that are equal to or better than current manual processes,
  • consistency and standardization to reduce the variability in sample preparation and to standardize protocols to enhance patient safety and workflow efficiency,
  • automation to reduce the pressure on cytotechnologists that prepare samples manually during a patient procedure,
  • an efficient process to ensure sample preparation does not prolong the physician’s FNA procedure and the patient’s time under anesthesia,
  • AI compatibility to enhance the evaluation and detection of cancer, and
  • sample custody of clinically important specimens separated into individual collection vials for future molecular/genetic testing to guide downstream patient therapy.

ASP Health is actively pursuing partnerships with commercial companies that have the reach to successfully implement ASP Health’s ROSE system nationwide and support the long-term mission of the company. Companies interested in discussing partnership opportunities are encouraged to contact ASP Health.

ABOUT ASP HEALTH ASP Health is a private medical device company focused on developing and commercializing innovative sample preparation technology to enhance and expand cancer diagnosis. ASP Health partners with Planet Innovation, a world-class company known for creating breakthrough products and commercially successful businesses. Its expertise in the research, design, engineering, manufacture, and marketing of new products is accelerating our product development and commercialization efforts. For more information, please visit asp-health.com.

ABOUT PLANET INNOVATION Planet Innovation (PI) is a healthtech innovation and commercialization company that exists to create breakthrough products and commercially successful businesses that transform industries and have a positive impact on the world. PI offers clients the full spectrum of product design, engineering and manufacturing services needed to develop and commercialize products for the diagnostics, life sciences and healthcare industries. It also makes strategic investments in selected global healthtech companies to help drive commercial success and build long-term partnerships.

BUSINESS CONTACTS

ASP Health Business/Clinical Development

Hari Subramanian

hariharan@asp-health.com

Planet Innovation

Hannah Kenner

hannah.kenner@planetinnovation.com

#_ednref1 [[i]] ROSE is a laboratory test that must be performed in accordance with the mandates of CLIA. The scope of practice for a ROSE service is dependent on the needs of the individual health care environment and best determined by the physicians and health care providers in each unique practice setting. The ASP System may only be used with reagents that are indicated for use. Other reagents may be used for research purposes only and need to be independently validated by the users of the ASP System. Sites are responsible to follow the most current version of the CLIA regulations Part 493.

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