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BWHers waited in anticipation in Bornstein Amphitheater nearing the close of Research Day for the winners of this year's BRIght Futures Prize and the first Stepping Strong Innovator Awards to be announced.
Thousands of BWHers and people from across the globe cast their votes over the last several weeks for each competition, both of which will fund innovative work at BWH.
The Stepping Strong Innovator Awards winner was announced first during the "Inspiring Innovation: Helping Trauma Patients Step Strong" session.
Matthew Carty, MD, of BWH's Division of Plastic Surgery, was declared the winner shortly after 3:30 p.m. His project focused on a new surgical approach to lower limb amputation that he believes will enable patients to interface with next-generation prostheses to restore fine movement, sensation and normal limb function. By incorporating techniques developed in complex reconstructive surgery, this novel procedure converts the traditional passive lower limb stump into an active appendage. This approach offers amputees the promise of controlling next-generation prostheses in a way that is far more natural and dynamic.
Matthew Carty and Gillian Reny
Carty competed against two other finalists, E.J. Caterson, MD, PhD, and Indranil Sinha, MD, both of the Division of Plastic Surgery in BWH's Department of Surgery, for the prize-a $100,000 grant to advance trauma research and care at BWH.
Graciously accepting the award for his project, Carty thanked everyone who made the award possible, as well as Caterson and Sinha for their work to advance trauma research and care.
"Although this award specifically highlights the work that the three of us are doing, this is the type of work that is happening every day at the Brigham," Carty said. "It's really a pleasure to be a part of this community."
This first annual Stepping Strong Innovator Awards competition was inspired by Gillian Reny, a student and aspiring dancer, who nearly lost her life when she was injured by the bombings during the 2013 Boston Marathon. Forever grateful to the BWH team that saved her life and helped her recover, Gillian and her family launched the Gillian Reny Stepping Strong Fund in February 2014. A second $100,000 Stepping Strong Innovator Awards grant will be distributed in a closed-door session in December.
Jeff Leiden
BRIght Futures Prize Winner Announced
Hadi Shafiee, PhD, of the Division of Renal Medicine, took home this year's BRIght Futures Prize during the Research Day Awards Ceremony. The third annual BRIght Futures Prize competition featured compelling projects-all with the potential to solve vexing medical problems.
At about 5:30 p.m., Shafiee accepted the award for his project, which seeks to develop an affordable, simple and rapid diagnostic platform that can detect human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and measure viral load-HIV levels in a person's blood-in infected individuals at the point-of-care. This device can potentially transmit test results to a central laboratory or physician through a cell phone.
Currently, there is no commercially available point-of-care HIV viral load device that meets the requirements for low- and middle-income countries. The majority of HIV viral load testing options available today are expensive, laboratory-based, time-consuming and complex. Therefore, these tests cannot be used in developing countries.
Also in the running for the BRIght Futures Prize were Nasim Annabi, PhD, of the BWH Division of Biomedical Engineering, and Alexander Lin, PhD, of BWH's Department of Radiology.
After accepting his award, Shafiee quoted the late BWH surgeon Joseph Murray, MD, about service to society being the rent we pay for living on this planet. "Since we are using this project in developing countries, I hope it helps us pay at least a little of our rent."