Dr. Paula Jaye Doyle Wins Inaugural AMWA Healthcare Innovation Challenge

CHICAGO, April 4, 2023 (Newswire.com) - Paula Jaye Doyle, MD, the docpreneur founder of EndoGlow, won the inaugural American Medical Women's Association (AMWA) Healthcare Innovation Challenge for her pitch to develop the GreenEgg, a fluorescent wand that enhances tissue visualization during minimally invasive surgeries. AMWA's first Healthcare Innovation Challenge was held in Philadelphia on March 25, during AMWA's 108^th Annual Meeting.

"Dr. Doyle was recognized as having the strongest pitch and most commercially viable medical innovation among the five finalists, according to an expert panel of five judges," says Dima Elissa, MBA, a healthcare technology entrepreneur, who was the driving vision behind this event. As the winning innovator, Dr. Doyle received a $10,000 check, as well as a one-year membership in MATTER.health start-up incubator and an AMWAxCEL Fellowship.

"As surgeries have become more complicated, passive surgical instruments and the use of fluorescent dyes are no longer sufficient to meet the challenges faced during most minimally invasive surgical procedures," according to Dr. Doyle, associate professor in obstetrics and gynecology and urology at the University of Rochester School of Medicine. "One compelling example of the usefulness of this medical device has been in assessing the level of endometriosis in a woman. When the GreenEgg was used, the invasiveness of the endometrial tissue was lit up clear through to the rectum, which would not have been visible to the naked eye."

EndoGlow is a woman physician-founded medical device company that is designing surgical devices that fluoresce under near infrared (NIR) imaging. Initially, Dr. Doyle developed a fluorescent polymer in order to transilluminate tissue and improve surgical visualization to address the frustration she recognized as a common limitation in achieving beneficial surgical outcomes. 

After she patented the Tissue Reveal Technology (TRT), she began to collaborate with three other MedTech entrepreneurs to apply the technology for use as an enhanced surgical manipulator, the GreenEgg. By joining forces, they finalized the TRT methodology, produced a sample device, and have proceeded to conduct product testing of the GreenEgg to amass the data needed to seek FDA approval.

The GreenEgg is a non-powered, handheld pelvic manipulator that was fashioned from a commonly used but inflexible, static surgical stick. The GreenEgg is different in two ways: 

• This medical device is an active manipulator 
• It transilluminates tissue, producing many surgical benefits, such as visualization of subsurface pathology, enhanced surgical planes, and better operating room communication. 

The benefits were first unveiled at the Society of Gynecologic Surgeons (SGS) in 2017 and again in 2022. In addition, EndoGlow received the Minimally Invasive Medical Device Recognition Award by MedTech Magazine in 2020 and the Innovation Surgical Device Company Award in 2021.

EndoGlow is in the final testing stage on the GreenEgg in preparation for seeking Food and Drug Administration approval. All members of the EndoGlow team are company investors.

American Medical Women's Association is a multispecialty organization of women physicians committed to advancing women in medicine, advocating for equity, and ensuring excellence in healthcare. Learn more at www.amwa-doc.org

Source: American Medical Women's Association