CIP
A platform for medtech innovators
CLIENT
Consortium for Affordable Medical Technology
LOCATION
Boston, MA, USA
Overview
The CAMTech Innovation Platform (CIP) was a publicly available web application, with an administrative back-end. This platform was operational for 4+ years - from late 2015 to early 2020.
Our design brief was to develop a platform that connects medical technology innovators, mentors, funders and public health agencies. Lattice converted client requirements into a design concept, and supported post-launch adoption of the platform.
Key features
Blinded email relay (BERS): The objective of this feature was to anonymize email addresses of mentors and investors. BER hid the recipient’s email address by masking it with an auto-generated email id (such as aa12kcdqee13572@mail.camtechmgh.org). Senders (innovators) could use any email client (Gmail, Outlook etc.) to send messages—they were not limited to using the platform’s messaging system for email communication. The recipient’s emails ID was also masked in their response. This feature was custom-built by Lattice, and used SendGrid as the SMTP (email) server.
Application process for innovation awards: The system enabled registered users to apply for innovation awards listed on CIP. The back-end system enabled administrators to assign applications to reviewers (drawn from a pool of experts), obtain additional information from applicants, move applications through the review process, and announce winners.
Integration with Grant Management System: We developed an interface with a Grant Management System, where innovation award winners could upload progress reports, enter fund utilization, and check-off milestones.
Innovation progress tracker: A tool that enabled innovators to measure their progress by answering a series of questions. Based on the responses, this tool directed innovators to various online resources that help them avoid common pitfalls and adopt effective product and market development strategies.
Discussion forum: Included inline tagging. The admin could combine tags from the back-end to better aggregate common discussions. The admin could also create new threads, and control access to the forum.