OMAHA, Nebraska (April 2, 2025)—UNeMed announced today the winner of the most recent “Back-o-the-Napkin Contest,” selecting a novel surgical device to receive the top prize of further development, guidance and prototyping.
Selected from a total of 14 entries, the winning idea was a device from UNMC surgeon and Professor, Aleem Siddique, MBBS, FACS, FACC. His idea shows promise for improving aortic surgery outcomes. All entries for the contest were evaluated for their novelty and commercial potential. Although they weren’t selected for the prize, several other submissions are expected to move forward with additional testing or research.
“A heartfelt thank you to all the brilliant minds who poured their passion into this invention contest,” UNeMed licensing specialist and contest director Tyler Scherr, PhD, said. “Their creativity is the heartbeat of progress.”
The contest received entries from inventive faculty across 11 departments and two campuses. UNMC fielded entries from the Colleges of Medicine, Allied Health, and Pharmacy. UNO was represented by the Colleges of Education, Health and Human Sciences and Information Science and Technology.
“It was truly inspiring to witness such a variety of talent, with entrants from every corner of our colleges and departments coming together,” Dr. Scherr said. “The response to contests like this is a testament to the culture of creativity that’s been instilled and nurtured by University leadership.”
On average, UNeMed, the technology transfer and commercialization office for UNMC and UNO, will process about 100 new inventions every year from faculty, staff and students. The nature of inventions vary widely, ranging from software solutions and novel therapies to research tools and medical devices.
Contest entries were judged on the following criteria: patentability, feasibility and market size.
“Additive manufacturing and iterative prototyping are game-changers in medical device innovation,” Dr. Scherr said. “They let us sprint toward solutions, tweaking and perfecting as we go. By building, testing, and refining in real-time, we’re pushing the ball down the field faster, turning bold concepts into life-saving realities.”
The winning invention was titled “Retrograde cerebral protection (RCP) central catheter,” which proposes a new device design and method for performing RCP in the event the patient’s superior vena cava is inaccessible.
“I can’t overstate the value of retrograde cerebral protection,” the inventor, Dr. Siddique said. “It’s like a safety net for the brain, ensuring we keep oxygenated blood flowing where it’s needed most.”
UNeMed and the UNMC Great Plains IDeA-CTR co-sponsored the contest, in collaboration with the James and Karen Linder Maker Studio at UNMC’s McGoogan Library, the UNO Machining and Prototyping Core in the Department of Biomechanics and the UNeTech Institute.
