MIT.nano’s Immersion Lab will be a supporting facility for the Digital Health Sandbox Network, a program that connects Massachusetts-based startups to cutting-edge research and development (R&D) facilities and allows them the opportunity to apply for funding to test their innovations at one of the network’s labs.
Organized by the Massachusetts eHealth Institute at MassTech (MeHI), the Sandbox Network recently added the MIT Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (IMES) as one of three new healthcare R&D hub sites in the program. Companies collaborating with IMES will have access to the Immersion Lab’s advanced R&D capabilities for visualization, haptic, aural, and other modes of interacting with digital content, as well as tools for measuring human behavior and biology, including biomechanical motion capture and clinical gold standard physiological measurements.
“The partnership of IMES and MIT.nano will help make MIT’s physical resources accessible, enable productive consultation with our community, and make it possible to tap into the deep knowledge and expertise embedded in our people,” said Brian Anthony, “Together with the community of digital health innovators, we will keep our economy and our health care systems strong.”
The IMES Clinical Research Center (CRC) sandbox program will support multidisciplinary research in human health, including device and algorithm research from concept to clinical translation. The aim of the CRC is to assist over the complete clinical research life cycle. The program will provide resources to support protocol design, regulatory compliance, clinical consultation, iterative design, oversight and participant monitoring, in addition to operationalizing clinical research protocols.
In addition to the IMES program, the new additions to the roster of Sandbox locations are Brigham Digital Innovation Hub (iHub) in Boston and TechSpring at Baystate Health in Springfield, Mass.
“Through the Sandbox Grant program, we hope to reduce the time, cost, and resources required to test innovative digital health solutions that are ‘Made in Massachusetts,’” Laurance Stuntz, MeHI Director and a member of the Governor’s Digital Health Council, said in the organization’s announcement. “By expanding the roster of Sandbox locations in the Network, we’re offering both Massachusetts and non-Massachusetts startups expanded access to tools and test beds that could be a springboard for their growth. Our hope is that by working with these world-class facilities and staff, startups can improve on their product and shorten the time to market, helping deliver their products into the hands of healthcare consumers around the world more quickly.”
Applications for the Sandbox Network and Grant Program are being accepted on a rolling basis. The program is expanding to include additional sandboxes across the state, in order to provide startups with a variety of testing environments and services.
More information:
>> Read the full announcement from IMES.
>> Companies interested in applying for a Sandbox program grant can find details on the MassTech’s website.