Pediatric tool

Another SRI division is working on creating medical tools geared toward the pediatrics market. According to principal investigator Pablo Garcia, there are many rare pediatric conditions that have never been serviced by the medical devices industry, largely because the market for them is too small.

But SRI feels that there are real markets to be created in the development of new medical tools designed specially to address the needs of young children suffering from some of these diseases.

This device is an example of one Garcia's group is working on--it is designed to join a tube to a baby's esophagus when the child has a condition in which it is born with the esophagus not attached to its stomach.

The thought is that by developing such tools for the pediatric market, it may be possible to both create that new market, and find a way to extend the device design to the adult market as well.