The National Institutes of Health have awarded ClearGuide Medical, a tech startup co-founded by Department of Computer Science Chair Gregory D. Hager, a two-year, $1.5 million SBIR Phase II award.

ClearGuide offers groundbreaking software that enables doctors and technicians to perform far more accurate ultrasound-guided procedures, such as needle biopsies. The NIH-funded project provides a new feedback method that will assist physicians in maintaining the correct probe and needle alignment, making it easier to use ultrasound simultaneously to hit the targeted body area or organ correctly the first time.

Paul Bigeleisen, Professor of Anesthesiology in the University of Maryland Department of Anesthesiology, will test the new device as part of the SBIR award.

The SBIR Award also includes a subcontract with Stanford University’s Allison Okamura, an international expert whose research focuses on developing the principles and tools needed to realize advanced robotic and human-machine systems capable of haptic (touch) interaction, particularly for biomedical applications.