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Oct. 3, 2000 Ithaca, NY
Transonic Systems received the Fifth Annual Tibbetts Award in Washington,
DC on October 3, 2000. The award came from the Small Business Administration in recognition of the company's contribution as a "Model of Excellence" for the
Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. It recognizes Transonic Systems for its invention and development of the Flow-QC Hemodialysis Monitor which measures
vital blood flow parameters while a patient is undergoing dialysis. On hand to receive the honor for Transonic Systems were Cornelis J. Drost, president and founder of the
company, Nikolai M. Krivitski, PhD, DSc, principal investigator for the grant and David MacGibbon, DVM, who, with Dr. Krivitski, co-authored the patent for measuring
vascular access blood flow with ultrasound dilution technology.
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Dr. Krivitski, right, principal investigator for the Transonic grant, poses with Mr. Tibbetts,SBA founder.
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The awardees were feted at a White House breakfast in the Indian Treaty Room of the Old Executive Office Building. An awards presentation
ceremony at the Hotel Washington followed an interactive session and luncheon. A Capital Hill reception completed the festivities.
The Tibbetts Awards were established to
nationally recognize small firms, individuals, organizations and projects which exemplify the business, economic and technological achievements of the Federal SBIR program.
From 1995 through 1998, Transonic Systems received
$850,000 to develop a Hemodialysis Monitor which is now used in dialysis clinics throughout the world to identify dialysis treatment issues before
patients require invasive surgical procedures. It allows the hemodialysis clinic staff to
routinely check the flow through their patients' vascular accesses to see if they are getting the
correct amount of dialysis. In addition to underwriting product development, the grant also
financed collaborative validation of the monitor at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit and the University of California at Davis.
This is not the first national recognition of Transonic Systems' revolutionary hemodialysis
technology. Introduced in 1994, the technology received the American Nephrology Nurses' Association National Symposium Exhibitor's Abstract Award in 1995. Last year the
National Kidney Foundation also embraced the enhanced standard of care provided by the
Transonic Flow-QC Monitor with recommendation of the technology in its Dialysis Quality Initiatives for monthly vascular access screening.
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