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Fertility issues can be physically and emotionally taxing for couples that can be exacerbated by the financial strain associated with assisted reproductive technology. For many people, trying to start a family, which should be the happiest time of their lives, can become draining. These sentiments are shared by 12 to 13 percent of United States couples who struggle to conceive.

A team of students from �㽶��Ƶ of Utah Health set out to help mitigate these frustrations with a medical device they presented at the 2018 annual . Their team, PreOv, received the $50,000 grand prize for its low-cost, user-friendly device that accurately provides couples with real-time fertility information.

Unlike many other fertility monitoring products, this device will evaluate the pre-ovulatory phase of a woman’s menstrual cycle by measuring the water content of cervical mucus. This information could provide couples with their optimal fertile days and give them plenty of time to plan. 

Members of the winning team, Jeanna Ryan, Young Hong, Lars Lofgren, and team leader Joni Aoki, were moved by the struggles of men and women across the country who encounter fertility problems or otherwise have difficulty conceiving. “For our friends and family that have needed to seek out fertility treatments, their experiences took a rigorous physical, emotional and financial toll that we greatly empathize with,” read their initial proposal.

Sponsored by Zions Bank, Bench-to-Bedside is a unique program that highlights health care innovation and is managed by the  and Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute. The program was designed to give students from different disciplines, such as medicine, engineering and business, the opportunity to try their hand at medical innovation with the goal of developing new medical devices to address an unmet clinical need. Prize money is intended to support further research and project development and ultimately help those students bring their ideas to market. PreOv hopes to present its device to couples as a more cost-efficient alternative to fertility monitoring.

“The Bench-to-Bedside program is the vision of two former students who wanted to transform health care,” said John Langell, MD, PhD, MPH, MBA, executive director for the Center for Medical Innovation at U of U Health.  “This program brings out the best and brightest [of our] students from across the state.”

Since the program debuted 8 years ago, the competition has created 176 teams that have invented 180 medical devices, filed 117 patents and launched 38 companies and is still going strong.

Other winners of the 2018 Bench-to-Bedside competition include: