Company History
NEATCap Medical was formed to commercialize concepts conceived by Andy Unger, MD (Chief of Neonatology) and Gayle Thear, MSN (NICU Director) to improve neurosensory development of sensitive premature infants via “Neurosensory, Environmental Adaptive Technologies” to reduce the impact of the harsh environment of Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs). Dr. Unger’s objective is to find solutions to enable improved outcomes in sleep, language development, and cognitive development.
In the Fall of 2015, following a successful benchtop demonstration of a prototype hearing protection device for NICU infants, a team of senior NICU staff at Magee Womens UPMC-Hamot Hospital and the company won the Pitt Innovation Challenge (PInCh®). Team NEATCAP received an award from the University of Pittsburgh’s Clinical & Translational Science Institute to perform a pilot clinical and ease-of-use study on NEATCap’s novel hearing protection device.
This 2-minute video made for PInCh® 2015 explains the project. Note the Hamot NICU staff was not providing a product endorsement, but proposed to conduct a study to evaluate safety and ease-of-use. The study received approval from both the University of Pittsburgh IRB and UPMC-Hamot Hospital IRB.
In late 2015, NEATCap Medical, LLC was formed to complete development, manufacturing, and delivery of NEATCap’s hearing protection devices for clinical study with NICU patients.
The pilot study with DREAMIES was successfully completed in Fall 2017.