GRAND RAPIDS – Sisu Global Health, a Michigan-based medical device startup company, has been nominated for the Saving Lives at Birth: A Grand Challenge for Development grant, as part of a global competition for technologies impacting infant and maternal health.
Sisu was nominated among more than 500 applicants including Fortune 500 companies, major research universities, and well-established, non-governmental organizations.
Sisu, led by three young graduates from Michigan universities, designs and develops medical technology for hospitals and clinics in low-resource countries. Their winning technology is a transfusion device used to treat ruptured ectopic pregnancies and internal hemorrhages in Sub-Saharan Africa and other rural areas.
?We?re so honored to be nominated out of such a prestigious group,? said Carolyn Yarina, CEO of Sisu. ?This award will go a long way in helping us continue the lifesaving work we?re doing in Ghana and in other developing nations.?
?It?s not just a matter of making things cheaper, or simplifying technologies,? said Gillian Henker, chief technology officer of Sisu. ?A lot of people in the developing world are highly educated and technically trained; it?s more shifting our thinking to fit their specific needs. What we need and have access to in the Western world isn?t always appropriate or supportive.?
Sisu is supported by several economic development organizations focused on assisting startups in Michigan including the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) and GR Current. The company began at the University of Michigan through funding from the MEDC?s Business Accelerator Grant. The Saving Lives at Birth: A Grand Challenge for Development competition is sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Government of Norway, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Grand Challenges Canada (funded by the Government of Canada), and the U.K?s Department for International Development.
