Students Make a Difference in G-tubes for Children

Pediafeed is changing the world of G-tubes in pediatric medicine. Composed of students from Johns Hopkins University (JHU), Pediafeed is a design team from the university’s biomedical engineering program who helped develop a new pediatric feeding device.

Anson Zhou, a student at JHU and member of Pediafeed, explained the process of coming up with the project, which started with a pitch from clinical sponsors, such as physicians or surgeons.

Dr. Karun Sharma, from Children’s National Hospital, is one of those sponsors. Noticing several issues with current gastronomy-tubes, or G-tubes, (devices placed into the stomach to receive nutrition), Sharma shared this concern with the program at JHU, where upperclassmen decided to take on the issue.

Pediafeed has also been working with groups like the Feeding Tube Awareness Organization, which communicate with families and take information that will help the project, like any issues a family may have had with a G-tube.

Zhou noted that he was not a part of the group at first, but after the group researched the issue and how many families it impacted in the United States, and began to find solutions, Zhou jumped right in.

“The reason I joined it was one, because the team seemed really passionate about the project itself, and I really wanted to learn from these upperclassmen … both technically and in this business aspect,” Zhou said.

“This project just seemed really compelling because it’s such a large issue that affects so many children, but it’s something we really don’t hear about.”

Many issues affect a child’s ability to eat food normally, like short bowel syndrome and absent swallow reflex, which leads to the need of a G-tube. Currently, approximately 117,000 children require a G-tube, many being 0 to 2 year-olds.

What Dr. Sharma and the Pediafeed team discovered, though, that out of those 117,000 cases, 22% experienced G-tube displacement. Displacement of the G-tube requires going to the hospital for a replacement, risking the safety of children who are often immune-compromised, and resulting in financial difficulties, with an economic burden of $47 million a year.

Displacement can be caused by the popping or deflation of a balloon in a balloon button G-tube. Another type of G-tube is a non-balloon button G-tube, however, inserting the device into the stomach requires a lot of force, which can cause serious harm and pain to the child. The excessive force of the non-balloon button may also result in displacement.

To combat the difficulties posed by the traditional balloon button and non-balloon button G-tubes, the Pediafeed team developed a novel pediatric G-tube that is more comfortable and safely provides nutrition to a child. Along with enhanced safety and comfort, Pediafeed’s G-tube is designed to be more secure and easy for at-home replacement, all while eliminating the need to use excessive force.

As the team develops their device, Zhou noted how a part of the culture in the biomedical engineering design program was to reach out for new opportunities, such as competitions like the UC Davis Big Bang! Business Competition, held Wednesday evening via Facebook live.

“It’s been really common in the last few years for design teams of different types to find all [of] these different competitions,” said Zhou.

Across the United States, dozens of competitions are held each year at different colleges and universities, such as Rice University, Johns Hopkins University, and UC Davis, where the competition was held this year.

“It’s a really good opportunity to showcase the need for your product, and if you have a patent you can reveal your product,” said Zhou.

At the Big Bang! Business competition, 16 finalists, varying in level of education and field of study, participated to show their projects and for the chance to win awards that will help fund their projects in the future.

Not only was Pediafeed a finalist, they were awarded $13,000 total for their project: $3,000 for the Food, Agriculture and Innovation Award, and $10,000 for the People’s Choice Award.

Zhou noted that he and his team were scared of finding out if they won an award. Though they did qualify for the preliminary awards, which was based on their application and pitch, the Pediafeed team was still nervous.

What was more nerve-wracking was the People’s Choice Award. Zhou recalled how his team had to develop a marketing strategy to get as many people to vote for their project. From posting on social media to creating graphics, the Pediafeed team did as much as they could to reach a wide network of people.

According to Zhou, though it was anxiety-inducing to reach out to many people on social media, it was also very exciting to see the amount of support that Pediafeed was receiving.

“There were literally people that I haven’t talked to in years asking for the link ... and for more information about the device,” Zhou said. “It was a really good experience to see how many people were interested in our project, and obviously it was really nice to win.”

Along with showing their projects and receiving funding, Zhou noted that participants also use competitions as practice, where members learn how to pitch and promote their product more effectively. Teams also receive feedback from professionals on what was good and what can be improved on.

“In the [design team] course itself, there is a pretty big focus on the technical aspect and then the development aspect, and that’s like one of the cons of having a successful medical product,” said Zhou. “Even though they do teach us the need of finding a market, the course doesn’t focus too much on that, so they encourage us to look at outside sources.”

The competition essentially combines the technical components of biomedical engineering and the components of operating business, allowing students to be fully immersed in what would be a real-world scenario.

If teams decide to continue working on their project beyond competitions, they will be able to establish a company using the feedback and experience they have received.

For future plans, the Pediafeed team is currently in the process of sending out a nationwide survey to families with young children who have G-tubes, where the team hopes to confirm previous statements and data, as well as gather new information that may not have been addressed before.

And, with the funding that Pediafeed received from the UC Davis competition, along with the information they will receive from the survey, the team hopes to create a functional, to-scale feeding tube that can be prototyped and tested. Pediafeed members have also expressed interest in participating in other competitions in the future.

Even graduating upperclassmen have decided to stick with the project. Katherine Hu, a graduating senior from JHU, and the team leader for Pediafeed, will continue to collaborate on the Pediafeed project.

Currently, despite the difficulties posed by COVID-19, members of Pediafeed are still working remotely and communicating with each other multiple times a week, setting up schedules and agendas of what must get done by a certain date.

“We’re really happy that we’ve been able to adapt well to the remote situation and still have been able to make a lot of progress on the project, despite a lot of things happening right now,” said Zhou.

Though the team members do not have access to resources that they were used to having on campus at JHU, they were successful in finding alternative tools and software to keep the work moving forward.

After focusing on the UC Davis competition, Pediafeed is working towards developing their project and looking for external funding, with the hope of turning this project into a potential business in the future.

Cover photo courtesy of Anson Zhou. Students from left to right: Jason Qian, Charlotte Cheng, Anson Zhou, Katherine Hu, Mihika Aedla (middle, back), Siya Zhang, Jocelyn Hsu, Kevin Sompel