Laurencin’s International Accolades and Research Objectives Grow, Earns National Medal of Technology and Innovation

In mid-2011, it was announced that after three years at the helm, Dr. Cato T. Laurencin would step down as vice president for health affairs and dean of the University of Connecticut School of Medicine on July 1 of that year. Laurencin, it was said, would continue conducting research, mentoring and providing clinical care. In the four and a half years since, it would seem that stepping down was the best thing that could ever have happened for Laurencin, and UConn.

It was announced last week by the White House that Laurencin will receive the National Medal of Technology and Innovation from President Barack Obama next year.  The award is the nation's highest honor for technological achievement that is bestowed by the president on America's leading innovators.

The news came just weeks after it was announced that Laurencin is the recipient of the 2016 Founders Award, the highest honor of The Society For Biomaterials.  He will be honored at the 2016 World Biomaterials Congress in Montreal, Canada on May 18, 2016.

Laurencin is a world-renowned surgeon-scientist in orthopaedic surgery, engineering, and materials science, and is known as a pioneer of the field of regenerative engineering, UConn said in announcing the award. He has made fundamental contributions in polymeric materials science and engineering, and nanotechnology. His research successes have included the growth and regeneration of bone, ligaments and other musculoskeletal tissues.

In November, UConn announced the launch of a new grand research challenge: regeneration of a human knee within seven years, and an entire limb within 15 years.  This major international research undertaking, called The HEAL Project, stands for Hartford Engineering A Limb. It is the brainchild of Cato T. Laurencin, whose laboratory research successes include the growth of bone and knee ligaments.

For the project, Laurencin is teaming with other top tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, and bioengineering experts dedicated to the mission of advancing the fields and developing future therapies for patients living with musculoskeletal defects or who have limb injury or loss. HEAL’s other research investigators include Professors Lakshmi Nair and Yusuf Khan of UConn, Professor David M. Gardiner of UC Irvine, professors at Harvard University, Columbia University, and Sastra University in India.

Earlier this fall, Laurencin was elected a Foreign Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences in India. He is one of only two 2015 Foreign Fellows elected, and the first from the University of Connecticut and UConn Health Center.  Laurencin was honored by India’s National Academy of Sciences “for his pioneering work in the field of material sciences.” He was recognized as a world leader in polymer-ceramic composites, and recognized for his contributions in tissue generation and bioengineering.

He was also one of select group of research scientists from around the world to be named this year to be a foreign member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), one of the most prestigious academic institutions in China.  He was named among a group of foreign members that include five Americans, one Briton, one Canadian and one Austrian, bringing CAE's foreign members to 49.

Laurencin is a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering; professor of materials science and engineering; and professor of biomedical engineering at UConn.  He is also the chief executive officer of the Connecticut Institute for Clinical and Translational Science (CICATS), UConn's cross-university translational science institute.

At UConn Health, he is director of the Institute for Regenerative Engineering; the Albert and Wilda Van Dusen Distinguished Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery; and director of The Raymond and Beverly Sackler Center for Biomedical, Biological, Physical, and Engineering Sciences.

Laurencin previously received the Presidential Faculty Fellow Award from President Bill Clinton for his work bridging engineering and medicine, and the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Math, and Engineering Mentoring from President Obama.

“Science and technology are fundamental to solving some of our Nation’s biggest challenges,” President Obama said. “The knowledge produced by these Americans today will carry our country’s legacy of innovation forward and continue to help countless others around the world. Their work is a testament to American ingenuity.”  Established by the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980, the medal was first awarded in 1985.

Joel D. Bumgardner, chair of the Awards Committee of The Society For Biomaterials said, “Dr. Cato Laurencin has become a world leader in nanomaterials, and tissue engineering, working across the spectrum from establishing basic science and biomaterial properties to translating discoveries into clinical practice. Also, his work has led to the development of a new area called regenerative engineering. This emerging area builds on and synergizes principles in biomaterials engineering and stem cell/developmental biology to formulate new paradigms for effective repair/regeneration of diseased/damaged tissues.

Bumgardner also noted Laurencin’s mentorship of young faculty and students – “a legacy that will have a significant and long-ranging impact in the broad biomaterials community.”

Psychiatric Nurses to Bring Annual Convention to Hartford in 2016

The American Psychiatric Nurses Association 30^th Annual Conference will take place next October at the Connecticut Convention Center.  It is the first time that the organization will hold its annual event in Connecticut.  This year’s program was held at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort in Florida, where attendees had the opportunity to earn up to 29.5 continuing education contact hours onsite and an additional 100 plus contact hours online afterwards.  The 2016 APNA Annual Conference will be held October 19-22 in Hartford.  The APNA Annual Conference delivers more than 100 varied educational sessions and invaluable networking opportunities to the more than a thousand psychiatric-mental health RNs and APRNs who attend each year. The organization has more than 10,000 members nationwide.

Last month, the APNA joined a White House initiative to address the ongoing epidemic of prescription drug abuse and heroin use across the nation. With organizations from both the public and private sectors participating, the effort seeks to train health care providers, improve access to treatment, and raise awareness of the risks of prescription drug misuse.

Approximately 2.3 million US citizens aged 12 and older have opioid use disorder, and most states have higher rates of treatment need than capacity to treat. In this context, educating health professionals and encouraging them to apply best-treatment practices is critical to improve the health of the nation. APNA is one of 8 nursing groups to pledge to be a part of the solution over the next two years.

The American Psychiatric Nurses Association (APNA) was founded in 1986. In the ensuing 28 years, APNA has grown to be the largest professional membership organization committed to the specialty practice of psychiatric-mental health (PMH) nursing and wellness promotion, prevention of mental health problems, and the care and treatment of persons with psychiatric disorders.

The APNA Annual Conference is held in a new location every year to encourage regional participation, add adventure, and provide a venue to connect with other psychiatric-mental health nurse professionals from across the globe, officials point out.

Plans for the convention in Connecticut include programs designed to “advance the profession through networking and education” and opportunities to “celebrate psychiatric-mental health nurses’ outstanding contributions” through the presentation of the APNA Annual Awards.

In Florida last month, more than 1,800 attendees were on hand for a program “packed with psychiatric-mental networking, updates, and continuing education targeted to psychiatric-mental health nurses.” Session recordings from the Annual Conferences are made available in the APNA eLearning Center in podcast form, along with up-to-date session slides and other relevant materials.

APNA is the only PMH nursing organization whose membership is inclusive of all PMH registered nurses (RN) including associate degree (ADN), baccalaureate (BSN), and advanced practice (APN) comprised of clinical nurse specialists (CNS), psychiatric nurse practitioners (NP), and nurse scientists and academicians (PhD). The American Psychiatric Nurses Association is accredited as a provider of continuing nursing education by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation.

The Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association (JAPNA), with more than 10,000 subscribers, provides quality, up-to-date information to promote PMH nursing, improve mental health care for culturally diverse individuals, families, groups, and communities, as well as shape health care policy for the delivery of mental health services.

https://youtu.be/AIys4qoQ5q8

CT Drug Overdose Death Rate Above National Average, 20th Highest in US; Doubles Since 2001

In every state, the rate of young people dying from drug overdoses increased in the past decade, according to a report by Trust for America’s Health. In the past 12 years, the overdose rate for people ages 12 to 25 has more than doubled in 35 states and quadrupled in five, Governing magazine reported.  In 1999, not one state had a drug overdose death rate of more than 6.1 per 100,000 young adults. Fast forward 14 years, and 33 states had drug overdose deaths of 6.1 per 100,000 or higher from 2011 to 2013. The national average is now 7.3 per 100,000 youths. In Connecticut, the average rate between 1999 and 2001 was 4.1 per 100,000.  Between 2010 and 2013, the drug overdose rate had risen to 8.3, above the national average but unchanged from a previous three-year period, 2005-2007.  The data was compiled from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  Males are 2.5 times as likely to overdose as females (10.4 vs. 4.1 per 100,000), according to the report.

In a report this month, Reducing Teen Substance Misuse: What Really Works, Connecticut ranked 31st lowest (20^th highest) for the number of youth drug overdose deaths, with the rate of 8.3 per 100,000 youth, ages 12 to 25. Connecticut is one of 18 states where the overdose death rates have more than doubled in the past dozen years, according to the report.

West Virginia, New Mexico and Utah have the highest rates of young adult overdose deaths, with each around 12 deaths per 100,000 youths in 2013. This is more than five times higher than South Dakota, North Dakota and Nebraska, which had rates around 3 deaths per 100,000 teens and young adults.

The statistics, and the use of opiates and heroin across the country, have been featured in recent weeks on 60 Minutes and The New York Times, focusing on Ohio and New Hampshire, respectively.  Both reports indicated it is a national problem of unprecedented proportion. 

Drug overdose death rates have increased everywhere since 1999, but the rate has gone down Florida, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi and Tennessee in the past 8 years. Nevertheless, the rate increased in 13 states since 2007 -- and 11 of those states have overdose death rates above 6.1 per 100,000.

In July, Governor Malloy hosted a bill signing ceremony at a New London treatment center to commemorate the final passage of legislation he introduced aimed at reducing heroin and prescription opioid abuse.  The legislation law improves the prescription monitoring program and prescribing practices, with increased education and tools available to health care professionals, and greater accessibility of the overdose reversing drug naloxone in cases of emergency, according to the Governor’s office.

"We have to treat addiction like a public health issue not a crime,” Malloy said.  “Connecticut is taking a stand against a nationwide prescription opioid and heroin overdose epidemic to become a leader in combating opioid and heroin abuse, preventing drug addiction and overdoses.  This common sense legislation will help save lives and address a pressing public health need."

The legislation streamlines the process to help practitioners identify potential abuse that leads to over prescribing by requiring them to check patient history to verify if patients seeking certain prescriptions have recently received these medications from multiple other prescribers or pharmacists.

Under the Connecticut law, in cases of overdose or medical emergency, the drug naloxone will be more widely available, allowing pharmacists, after being trained and certified to prescribe it to Connecticut families, first responders, and the treatment community across the state.  In Connecticut, State Police Troopers have saved more than 30 lives from drug overdose by administering NARCAN.

The Reducing Teen Substance Misuse report also includes a review of 10 key indicators of leading evidence-based policies and programs that can improve the well-being of children and youth and have been connected with preventing and reducing substance— alcohol, tobacco or other drugs—misuse.  Connecticut was one of two states scoring  nine out of 10 and, nationally, 24 states scored a five or lower. Minnesota and New Jersey received the highest score of 10 out of a possible 10 points, while four states scored the lowest, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi and Wyoming, with three out of 10 points, according to the report.

Those states with drug overdose death rates above the national average, in addition to Connecticut, include Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

Rates have more than tripled in twelve states (Arkansas, Delaware, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New York, Oklahoma, Utah and West Virginia); and more than quadrupled in five states (Kansas, Montana, Ohio, Wisconsin and Wyoming).

Overall, the report found a significant jump in overdoses from teen to young adult years. Overdose rates for 19- to 25-year-olds are eight times greater than people 18 and younger.  There isn’t a clear answer for why heroin addiction and overdose deaths have grown so dramatically, although the availability of prescription drugs might have something to do with it, Governing reported.

The New York Times reported that:

• Heroin-related deaths jumped 39 percent from 2012 to 2013, and the longer-term trends are equally disturbing: from 2002 to 2013, the rate of heroin-related overdose deaths nearly quadrupled, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
• Researchers have found that prior to the 1980s, whites and nonwhites were equally represented among first-time heroin users. Now, nearly 90 percent of the people who tried heroin for the first time in the past decade were white. And a growing number are middle-class or wealthy.
• Three out of four heroin addicts started out by using prescription drugs. The C.D.C. reports that 45 percent of people who used heroin between 2011 and 2013 were also addicted to prescription painkillers. People who are dependent on prescription opioids are 40 times more likely to abuse or be dependent on heroin, according to the C.D.C.
• Opioid deaths were up 76 percent in New Hampshire in 2014, with 325 people dying from an opioid overdose, according to state figures. Emergency room visits from heroin have more than tripled there since 2013. In Massachusetts, opioid deaths rose 20 percent in 2014, and are up 63 percent over 2012, The Boston Globe reported.

https://youtu.be/CQFITcdG8_4

Will CT School Buses Be Required to Add Seat Belts? New Federal Policy May Spur Change

When word came down from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration last week that the longstanding preference for school buses without three-point lap/shoulder seat belts was being reversed, one Connecticut town could say: been there, done that. Wilton, which has about 4,200 school children on busses each day, has had the three-point safety belt system installed on its school busses since August 2012.  They apparently were the first in the state to do so.

Earlier this year, Massachusetts legislators considering a requirement for seat belts on school buses were told that passenger restraint systems would add between $11,000 and $13,000 to the cost of buses, which currently range from $90,000 to $105,000.

Frank Underhill, executive director of the School Transportation Association of Massachusetts, which includes more than 100 school bus contractors and municipalities who run their own school buses, told members of the legislature’s Public Safety Committee that six states require seat belts on school buses, but said that none of those states has fully implemented the requirement, due to a lack of funding.

Those states - California, Florida, Louisiana, New Jersey, New York and Texas -- have some sort of legislation in place requiring seat belts on school buses, according to Governing magazine. The states’ laws vary in levels of enforcement; some simply require two-point seat belts to be present on school buses, while others require that all passengers use the more secure, three-point belts.  Connecticut does not have a statewide requirement.

Wilton Transportation Coordinator Mary Channing isn’t aware of other Connecticut communities that have followed her community’s lead.  The town included the three-point belt as an option in their most recent RFP, in 2012, for student transportation, and the winning bid included the lap/shoulder belts.  It is not a board policy.

Statewide, nearly 500,000 children are transported on buses to and from school each day.  National policy, based on numerous studies, has been that buses are designed to be inherently safer than cars because of the high backs/fronts creating a “compartmentalization” and providing better crash protection.  It has been noted, however, that when students lean outside the seating “compartment” – which can occur as students, backpacks, winter gear, overcrowd seats – their level of safety diminishes.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is endorsing three-point seat belts on school buses for the first time.  NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind acknowledged that the agency "has not always spoken with a clear voice on the issue of seat belts on school buses. The position of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is that seat belts save lives," Rosekind said. "That is true whether in a passenger car or in a big yellow bus. And saving lives is what we are about. So NHTSA's policy is that every child on every school bus should have a three-point seat belt."

The issue of seat belts on schools buses garnered considerable attention in Connecticut in 2010 when 16-year-old Vikas Parikh was killed in a school bus accident. The Rocky Hill High School student sustained a traumatic head injury while riding a school bus that tumbled down an embankment off of I-84 after hitting another car.  As a result, state lawmakers reopened the debate on whether to require Connecticut's roughly 10,000 school buses to install three-point seatbelt systems.  They did not.

Instead, Public Act 10-83, created a Connecticut School Bus Seat Belt account to help school districts respond to the cost of equipping school buses with lap/shoulder (3-point) seat belts, should they choose to do so.  In June 2010, the office of then-Gov. M. Jodi Rell announced that “under the law, the Department of Motor Vehicles will begin offering a program in July 2011 that offsets a portion of the sales tax bus companies pay for school buses equipped with three-point seatbelts. The program will be funded through a $50 increase in the fees paid for restoring suspended or revoked driver’s licenses, commercial driver’s licenses and vehicle registrations. The program will run through at least 2018. During the 2018 legislative session, lawmakers will hold a hearing on the program and decide whether it should be continued.”

Said Rell: “This law provides a modicum of state assistance to districts wanting to add seat belts to their fleet but does not impose a costly new mandate on all districts –- striking a good balance between incentive and choice.”

It is unclear if funds have accumulated in that account, or if any towns or companies have sought the assistance.  Some published reports suggest that the funds have been diverted to other uses in recent years.  The law requires that “school district participating in the program shall provide written notice concerning the availability and proper use of such seat belts to a parent or legal guardian of each student who will be transported on such school bus,” and that participating  school districts “instruct such students on the proper use, fastening and unfastening of such seat belts.”

A 2010 editorial in The Hartford Courant noted that “A study of emergency room visits by Columbus (Ohio) Children's Hospital found 17,000 school bus injuries in the U.S. every year — two to three times National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates, which use only a sampling of data and exclude field trips like the one on which Vikas Parikh died.  Seat belts work best in rollover and side-impact collisions in which students are thrown out of their seats, as Vikas was. The American Academy of Pediatrics supports restraints on buses.”

The website of the Connecticut School Transportation Association (COSTA) points out that a three-point system, “similar to the ones in automobiles, works with compartmentalization and, according to NHTSA, could provide some additional benefit to occupants of school buses, if it is consistently and properly used. But the federal government does not believe that a mandate for lap/shoulder belts is justified, because the safety benefits are very small and the cost is high. Furthermore, there are several potential negative factors, such as children wearing the shoulder portion improperly, that could mitigate the benefits of the restraints and result in a net loss of safety.”

The organization goes on to “emphasize that school buses without restraints are still safer than any other current mode of transportation—whether it’s walking to school, riding bikes, or traveling in parents’ cars,” adding “the biggest mistake that districts could make is to reduce the number of students who qualify for transportation in order to afford new buses with restraint systems. Any possible benefit of the restraints would be completely overshadowed by the increased risk to students who were denied school bus transportation.”

Last week, however, the Parikh family was among those lauding the federal change and looking for follow-through from Connecticut policy makers.  Vikas’ mother told NBC Connecticut, “If it can save at least one life, it is worth it.”

https://youtu.be/LGqmgUy2BrM

Questions on Synthetic Turf Continue as New High School Field Opens in Connecticut

Construction of a new, synthetic-surface football field to replace the grass field that had developed drainage problems at Bloomfield High School was driven by concern over player safety.  The conditions on the old field, which had not been renovated in more than a decade, had become dangerous and led to player injuries, according to school officials. But the $1.3 renovation of the field and adjacent track, completed this year and which saw students on the field for the first time last month with the start of football season, has renewed questions first raised months ago locally, and which remain in the news nationally.

Back in March, on the brink of Board of Education approval of the new track and field, concerns were raised about the safety of the proposed turf.  Published reports indicate that “some members expressed concerns over synthetic fields having been linked to carcinogens.”  Board Chairman Donald Harris told The Hartford Courant that BSC Group, the company that was hired to install the field, put those concerns to rest.  "We are fully supportive because there are no carcinogenic concerns," he said.

In recent months, however, questions have continued elsewhere about sand and rubber-pellet based fields, driven in part by a University of Washington women’s soccer coach who complied statistics of players who became ill, and NBC News reporting of her data.  That has spurred members of Congress to call for an independent federal investigation into crumb rubber, citing lingering health questions surrounding the small rubber shreds used as artificial turf.

There have been dozens of studies that have found there to be no elevated health concerns, including a study by Connecticut’s health officials, but questions persist.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who has been described as leading the effort, first became concerned about the artificial surface when his children were playing on the crumb-rubber athletic fields.  “I became concerned as a parent, as much as a public official, ten years ago, and at first was somewhat skeptical, but now very firmly believe that we need an authoritative, real study about what's in these fields," Blumenthal told ABC News this month.  He is calling for an independent investigation of the safety of the rubber pellets used in synthetic turf.

EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, a former Connecticut Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection, told ABC News “there is no evidence yet that is making these links, but it doesn’t mean we’re dismissing the concerns.”

The pellets made from ground-up discarded tires are used as turf on more than 10,000 athletic fields and playgrounds around the country, according to the Synthetic Turf Council.

Boston-based BSC Group, with offices in Worcester, West Yarmouth and Glastonbury, was hired to construct the new synthetic turf field in Bloomfield.  The company was founded in 1965, and is a multi-disciplinary firm with expertise in a range of areas including structural engineering, landscape architecture, environmental permitting, ecological sciences and site engineering.  The work at Bloomfield High School renovation included a resurfaced six-lane track, installation of the synthetic turf field and improved drainage.  The football team began play on the field this season.

In Connecticut, like elsewhere around the nation, artificial turf fields have become a popular alternative to natural grass fields. The state Department of Public Health (DPH) website points out that “the advantages of these fields include less maintenance costs, ability to withstand intense use and no need for pesticides.”  To address public safety concerns, four Connecticut state agencies collaborated in 2010 to evaluate the potential exposures and risks from athletic use of artificial turf fields, the DPH website explains.

A two year, comprehensive investigation of releases from five fields during active play was conducted by the Connecticut departments of Public Health, Energy and Environmental Protection, University of Connecticut Health Center, and The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. The study was peer-reviewed by the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering.  The overall conclusion of the report, according to the DPH website, is that “use of outdoor artificial turf fields does not represent a significant health risk.”

Gary Ginsberg, a toxicologist with the state Department of Public Health who worked on the states risk assessment study, told The Hartford Courant recently that he has no concerns about his own children playing on artificial fields.  “None at all.”

Driver Distraction Continues Almost 30 Seconds After Text is Sent, Research Reveals

Groundbreaking research by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety reveals that the distraction drivers experience using voice activated technology - or their smartphones - to make a call, change music or send a text can linger for almost 30 seconds after the task is complete. “This should be a wakeup call to anyone who feels safe texting while sitting at a red light”, says AAA spokesperson Amy Parmenter. “Just because you can hit the gas when the light turns green, doesn’t mean you’re good to go.”

Researchers studying various push-to-talk technologies found that potentially unsafe levels of mental distraction lasted for as long as 27 seconds after completing a task in the worst-performing systems. And, at the 25 MPH speed limit in the study, drivers traveled the length of nearly three football fields during this time. Using the least distracting systems, drivers still remained impaired for more than 15 seconds.

The researchers discovered the residual effects of mental distraction while comparing the voice activated technology in ten 2015 vehicles and three types of smart phones. The analysis found that all systems studied increased mental distraction to potentially unsafe levels.

“Automakers often promote everything their connected cars can do, but this research paints a frightening picture of what drivers can’t do if they use the popular features” Parmenter says. “Hands free does not mean risk free. It’s that simple”.

Last month, CT by the Numbers reported that in-car electronics that allow drivers to listen to, read and send text messages while at the wheel may be skirting the spirit, if not the letter, of Connecticut law.  In Connecticut, Public Act 10-109, enacted in 2010, states that “no person shall operate a motor vehicle … while using a hand-held mobile telephone to engage in a call or while using a mobile electronic device while such vehicle is in motion. An operator of a motor vehicle who types, sends or reads a text message with a hand-held mobile telephone or mobile electronic device while such vehicle is in motion shall be in violation of this section.”

In the AAA study, researchers rated driver distraction on a scale of 1-5, with 1 being relatively safe, about equal to listening to the radio, and 5 being highly challenging in such a way as to overload the driver’s attention. The best performing system was the Chevy Equinox with a cognitive distraction rating of 2.4, while the worst performing system was the Mazda 6 with a cognitive distraction rating of 4.6.

The systems that performed best generally had fewer errors, required less time on task and were relatively easy to use.  The researchers also studied voice activated smartphone technology and found that Google Now outperformed Apple Siri and Microsoft Cortana but, they say, all were dangerously distracting with ratings of 3.1, 3.4 and 3.8 respectively.

Dr. David Strayer and Dr. Joel Cooper of the University of Utah conducted the research. A total of 257 drivers ages 21-70 participated in the study of 2015 model-year vehicles, while 65 additional drivers ages 21-68 tested the three phone systems. Over the last two weeks, AAA has shared its findings with policymakers, safety advocates and manufacturers in hopes of improving the safety of future technology.

Fledgling "Businesses with Impact" Recognized, Receive Funds to Propel Start-Up

When reSET, the Social Enterprise Trust, whose mission is advancing the social enterprise sector, revealed the winners of its annual Impact Challenge last week, the top award recipient was FRESH Farm Aquaponics, with Movia Robotics, Planet Fuel Beverage Company, Hartford Prints! and Parrot MD rounding out the top five. While the businesses may not be household names, they do represent an increasing number of start-up businesses that are not only seeking a foothold in their respective industries, but are looking to contribute to their community – locally or globally – along the way.

Based in Hartford, FRESH Farm Aquaponics is devoted to providing “the best quality aquaponic food to our community sustainably, teaching a new generation with aquaponics, and engaging the community to develop a local food ecosystem.” The company proclaims “expect from us the best produce available locally, year round in the Hartford County area. You will also see us engaging local schools in pioneering aquaponic experiments from elementary schools to universities.” (see video below)

Planet Fuel is a sustainable lifestyle beverate brand for teens and tweens.  The company's goal is to inspire young people to realize the power of consumer choices to effect social and environmental change.

MOVIA Robotics provides an innovative approach in educating children with autism to "form connections inside the world we live in today." The company uses robots and develops "our own software based on interactions with therapists and children."

Now in its fifth year, the reSET Impact Challenge recognizes the most innovative and impactful early stage ventures and start-ups from all industries throughout New England.  The event, held at The Society Room of Hartford, saw a record, sellout crowd of 300 in attendance.

Diamond Level - $20,000 + Professional Services Package (1 Winner)

FRESH Farm Aquaponics (http://www.freshfarmct.org)

Gold Level - $10,000 + Professional Services Package (2 Winners)

Movia Robotics (www.moviarobotics.com)

Planet Fuel Beverage Company (http://www.planetfuel.com)

Silver - $5,000 + Professional Services Package (2 Winners)

Hartford Prints! (hartfordprints.com)

Parrot MD (parrotmd.org)

People’s Choice - $1,500 + Professional Services Package (1 Winner)

BookBugs (www.bookbugs.net) 

Investor’s Choice - $1,500 (1 Winner)

Send Help Back Home (www.sendhelptoday.com)

Bronze - $500 (7 Winners)

Asarasi, Inc. (www.asarasi.com)

Beautiful Day / Providence Granola Project (www.providencegranola.com)

BookBugs (www.bookbugs.net)

Daily General Counsel (www.dailygeneralcounsel.com)

Dream See Do (https://www.dreamseedo.org)

Hugo & Hoby (www.hugoandhoby.com)

LOTUS Alliance LLC (www.lotusalliance.org)

The five awards judges - Sherrell Dorsey of Uber and Triple Pundit, Adam Dotson of Ironwood Capital, Claire Leonardi, an advisor to reSET's Social Enterprise Investment Fund and former CEO of Connnecticut Innovations, Anthony Price of LootScout and Paul Witinski of Ironwood Capital - narrowed down more than 100 applicants to 12 honorees.  The People’s Choice winner was selected via more than 1,800 online votes.

Since its inception, reSET’s Impact Challenge has awarded more than $180,000 to scaling entrepreneurs. reSET is a nonprofit organization whose mission is advancing the social enterprise sector. Its strategic goals are threefold: to be the “go-to” place for impact entrepreneurs, to make Hartford known as Impact City, and Connecticut the Social Enterprise state.  In addition to providing co-working space, accelerator and mentoring programs, reSET aims to inspire innovation and community collaboration, and to support entrepreneurs in creating market-based solutions to community challenges. reSET’s goal is to meet entrepreneurs wherever they are in their trajectory and to help them take their businesses to the next level.

reSET’s Impact Accelerator recently was a winner of the U.S. Small Business Administration Growth Accelerator Competition, the only Connecticut growth accelerator to receive the award this year.

https://youtu.be/A03RH_htQ88

Community Plates Rescues Food to Help Hungry; Norwalk-Based Nonprofit Has Appetite for Growth

Hunger in the United States makes no sense. That, in a nutshell, is what drives Norwalk-based nonprofit organization Community Plates. Now in six regions of the country (including it’s home county) and seeking to take root elsewhere, Community Plates is committed to ending American food insecurity by directly transferring fresh, usable food that would have otherwise been thrown away from restaurants, markets and other food industry sources to food-insecure families throughout the U.S.

Community Plates is up and running in Fairfield and New Haven in Connecticut as well as in Columbus, OH, Albuquerque, New Mexico and New Orleans, Louisiana. As the company website explains, “Food insecurity is a real problem in parts of the U.S. Many families don't have a good idea where their next meal is coming from. Some people go to work every day and by the time they pay for the roof over their head, their heat and electricity, there isn't always enough money left for food that week. So we definitely have people in need of that resource.”

Jeff Schacher founded the company in 2011, and it has delivered 4.5 million meals to people in need in Fairfield County alone.  Yet, as the organization’s website points out, one “would never imagine that in one of the wealthiest counties in America, there are over 100,000 people (38,000 children) that are classified as food insecure.”

The process is dependent upon volunteers, at each step:

1. Surplus fresh food is donated by restaurants and markets.
2. Local volunteers donate their time, vehicles, and fuel to rescue the fresh food.
3. Receiving agencies deliver rescued food to food-insecure people in their area.

The organization is driven by volunteers – food donors, food runners and partner agencies.  One such agency in Connecticut is the Manchester Area Conference of Churches, which indicates there are 8,000 food-insecure people in the greater Manchester area.

Community Plates New Haven is working to provide meals to the 123,000 food insecure residents of New Haven County - a stunning 14.4 percent of the county’s population. The organization’s website notes that “Sadly, over 19.2% of New Haven County’s children fall within the guidelines of being food insecure, and the number continues to increase.”

Community Plates began in Fairfield County, and over 80 percent of the 1.5 million pounds of food rescued since the organization’s inception has been “rescued right here,” the website explains.

Community Plates is “built on a foundation of social entrepreneurship, and we so strongly believe in the power of community, we built it right into our name,” officials point out.  The organization highlights six Connecticut farms and farmers for their support of the effort in the Nutmeg State:

• Ambler Farm
• City Center Danbury Farmers’ Market
• Feeny Farms
• Millstone Farm
• Rowayton Farmers’ Market
• Sport Hill Farm

https://youtu.be/DagcKtlJi64

Medical Device Tax Seen as Inhibitor to Innovation, Repeal Sought

Emerging technologies that can develop breakthrough medical devices are at the intersection of innovation and tax policy, and a growing list of businesses and organizations are urging Congress to repeal a tax, instituted as part of the Affordable Care Act, that they say is harmful to industries with the potential to improve lives and boost local economies.  The issue has particular resonance in Connecticut, where efforts to grow technology, precision manufacturing and the medical and pharmaceutical industries have accelerated in recent years.  Medical technology creates more than two million jobs directly and indirectly across the United States. The industry is one of the few U.S. manufacturing sectors that is a net exporter, and its innovations help reduce the human and economic burden of chronic disease.  Industry officials point out that while U.S. leads the world in the development of new medical technology, the device tax “threatens that leadership.”

Earlier this year, a bipartisan majority of the U.S. House of Representatives voted to repeal the medical device tax.  The fate of the proposal in the Senate is unclear.  A growing coalition of research advocates, disability rights leaders, patient groups and others support repeal of the device tax because, they say, it drains critical resources away medical innovation.  According to a 2015 study by opponents of the tax, two-thirds of med-tech companies that were surveyed said they had to either slow or halt job growth at their companies because of the medical device tax.

Between 2002 and 2012, the number of jobs in the Medical Equipment and Supplies Manufacturing industry in Connecticut increased by 10.75 percent, with the addition of about 700 jobs, according to the Connecticut Economic Resource Center (CERC).  CERC’s research indicated that jobs in the field were almost twice as concentrated in Connecticut in comparison to the United States, with average wages above the national average, with more than 150 companies in the medical equipment and supplies manufacturing business.

Connecticut’s medical device industry continues to see new entries.  Just two years ago, a company launched by a 2011 UConn graduate, Orthozon Technologies, received local notice for its newly developed “minimally invasive tool for spine surgeons,” which led to the company’s quickly “gaining momentum in the medical device field,” the Fairfield County Business Journal reported that year.

The Stamford-based company’s Lumiere™ is a state-of-the-art minimally invasive surgical retractor that provides “access and visibility for physicians as well as faster and less painful recovery time for patients,” according to the company website.  Utilizing a patented technology with powerful unobstructed fiber optic lighting, translucent retractor blades, full medial access, and an expandable field of view, the medical device provides surgeons with a tool “for quicker and more efficient spinal decompressions.”

Earlier this month, when the state’s fastest growing technology firms were honored at the 2015 Marcum Tech Top 40, in partnership with the Connecticut Technology Council, medical devices were among the technologies highlighted. 

One of the leading categories included “Medical Devices companies manufacturing medical instruments and devices including medical diagnostic equipment (X-ray, CAT scan, MRI), medical therapeutic devices (drug delivery, surgical instruments, pacemakers, artificial organs), and other health related products such as medical monitoring equipment and handicap aids.”

Among the companies selected was Guilford-based Bio-Med Devices, which designs, manufactures, and markets a complete line of critical care and transportable respirators/ventilators, air - oxygen blenders, ventilation monitors,  disposable and reusable breathing circuits, and accessories.

Connecticut Innovations. The state’s leading source of financing and ongoing support for Connecticut’s innovative, growing companies, highlights six Connecticut companies in the medical device industry within its investment portfolio, with some investments dating back to 2007.

Nationwide, an aging population, people with disabilities living longer lives, and chronic disease rates growing at faster rates, lead advocates of repeal say now is the time for more—not less—resources to advance cures and treatments that help people live longer and healthier lives.  The industry survey indicated that 85 percent of respondents plan to reinstate forgone R&D projects if the tax is repealed.

https://youtu.be/uqTdNffOaas

Got Drugs? Take 'Em Back

There will be 64 locations across Connecticut collecting drugs on Saturday, September 26.  It is part of National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day, an initiative of the U.S. Department of Justice Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) Office of Diversion Control.  The aim is to get unused prescriptions and other drugs out of closets, medicine cabinets, glove compartments, and random shelves and drawers, as well as off the streets, before they end up causing harm. In Connecticut, state police barracks and many local police departments are serving as drop off points.  The collection sites will be open as part of the initiative from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM on Saturday. (See the full list here.)

States around the country are participating, and all but Pennsylvania and Delaware, which held their collection days on September 12, are doing so on September 26. According to a public service announcement prepared by the DEA, “prescription drug abuse is an epidemic in this country, and the source of these drugs is often the home medicine cabinet.”

The National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day aims to provide a safe, convenient, and responsible means of disposing of prescription drugs, while also educating the general public about the potential for abuse of medications.

“Prescription drug abuse is a huge problem and this is a great opportunity for folks around the country to help reduce the threat,” DEA Acting Administrator Chuck Rosenberg said.  "Please clean out your medicine cabinet and make your home safe from drug theft and abuse.”

In the previous nine Take-Back events nationwide from 2010-2014, 4,823,251 pounds, or 2,411 tons of drugs were collected, officials reported.  Saturday’s event will be the 10^th national effort.

Many Americans are not aware that medicines that languish in home cabinets are highly susceptible to diversion, misuse, and abuse, according to officials. Rates of prescription drug abuse in the U.S. are at alarming rates, as are the number of accidental poisonings and overdoses due to these drugs, they point out.

Officials cite studies that show many abused prescription drugs are obtained from family and friends, including from the home medicine cabinet. In addition, manyAmericans do not know how to properly dispose of their unused medicine, often flushing them down the toilet or throwing them away – both potential safety and health hazards.