Produced by the Office of Marketing and Communications
A technology startup with ties to the University of Maryland was recently acquired by CareDx, a leading company focused on health care solutions for transplant patients and caregivers. The move sets the stage for ramped-up innovation in a field long plagued by delays and logistical problems.
The acquisition of Baltimore-based MediGO has the potential to reduce wait times and increase access to donated organs, among other benefits, said CareDx CEO and President Reg Seeto.
MediGO specializes in workflow and logistics software tools designed to improve the efficiency of organ procurement and delivery, with the goal of improving rates of organ utilization and saving more lives. It was founded in 2020 by entrepreneur/philanthropist Scott Plank ’88, Anthony Pucciarella, former operations director at the UMD UAS Research and Operations Center, and transplant surgeon Dr. Joseph Scalea, a professor at the Medical University of South Carolina.
“By leveraging our combined strengths, we will drive operational efficiencies, accelerate innovation, and deliver even greater value to the transplant ecosystem by addressing the serious organ transplant shortage,” said Seeto, a member of the advisory board of UMD’s Fischell Department of Bioengineering.
Plank said that by joining forces, the two companies would be able to “deliver transformational solutions that improve the transplant patient’s journey.”
“Combining MediGO's network, real-time data and predictive analytics with CareDx’s digital health platform capabilities, we are better poised to deliver next-generation data-driven patient solutions,” he said. “With MediGO's people and technology solutions and CareDx, we expect to make a greater impact through this collaboration.”
Scalea and Pucciarella, along with other UMD staff, collaborated in 2019 on the first-ever drone delivery of an organ for a waiting patient. Plank later co-founded MissionGO, a cousin company to MediGO, with Pucciarella and Scalea to build on that achievement and spearhead further applications of drone technology. It has since gone on to set the record for longest UAS human organ delivery flight.
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