Neal Sikka had a good Thanksgiving. Just before the holiday, he learned that he was elected as a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), joining several other George Washington University faculty previously named fellows or senior members. The NAI was founded to recognize the accomplishments of inventors at universities, whose innovations benefit society. Sikka is now one of 2,068 NAI Fellows, a group which includes 53 Nobel laureates.
Sikka is chief of the Innovative Practice and Telehealth section at GW Medical Faculty Associates and professor of emergency medicine in the School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS). He came to GW for emergency medicine residency training in 2000 and joined the faculty in 2003. He co-invented the SonoStik, a device designed to help medical professionals insert IV lines in patients when it is difficult to find a vein, and also co-founded a company to produce the new tool.
“Patients may have gone through a lot of chemotherapy and their veins are no longer good, or they may have a history of IV drug abuse in the past and their veins aren’t as accessible,” Sikka said. “And some patients just have veins that are really difficult to find.”
The SonoStik has recently been given its second clearance from the FDA. If all goes according to plan, it will come to market in the summer of 2025, ending a journey that began about a dozen years ago when Sikka and former GW medical residents and engineering students formed a team to develop the product. They took advantage of the infrastructure in place at GW to support innovation and entrepreneurial initiatives, winning second place in a Pitch George competition and then winning the GW Business Plan Competition, now known as the New Venture Competition.
In simple terms, the device frees up one of a healthcare provider’s hands to use an ultrasound probe to find a vein that would otherwise be difficult to see, and uses a guidewire to make it easier to advance a catheter into the vein.
The SonoStik’s advancement wheel, shown here in blue, makes it especially easy to use.
“With our device, we’re basically facilitating a very common medical technique called the Seldinger technique,” Sikka said. “The SonoStik platform is focused around a little advancement wheel that makes it really easy to advance a guidewire into the vein. That guidewire gives you a runway to advance the catheter. And so you don't you have to watch it under ultrasound anymore, because you know that once your guidewire is in the vessel, all you need to do is advance the catheter over the wire.”
Sikka was nominated for selection as NAI fellow by Brian Coblitz, executive director of GW’s Technology Commercialization Office. Election as an NAI fellow is a professional distinction accorded to academic inventors who have demonstrated records of innovation around inventions intended to improve societal welfare and spur economic development.
“As an innovator, entrepreneur and advisor, Neal Sikka exemplifies the qualities of a NAI fellow,” Coblitz said. “He dedicates countless hours to bringing innovative devices and services to market to improve patient care.”
GW was a charter member of NAI in 2013, Coblitz noted, and launched its own NAI chapter in 2023. Sikka joins another recent NAI inductee, Charles Garris, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS), who was elected in 2023 both for his inventions in the heating and cooling field and his promotion of training students in the patenting process.
“Receiving the honor of becoming a fellow in the National Academy of Inventors is a very warm and happy culmination of all the years I have devoted to inventions and patenting,” Garris said.
Other NAI fellows in the GW community include Michael Keidar (SEAS), Robert H. Miller (SMHS), Mona Zaghloul (SEAS), Akos Vertes (emeritus, CCAS), and the late Ferid Murad (SMHS).
In addition, Steven Kubisen, former director of GW’s Office of Technology Transfer, was elected as a fellow while at GW, and Holden Thorp became a fellow before joining CCAS as a professor of chemistry in 2023.
Coblitz praised GW inventors Narine Sarvazyan, SMHS professor, and Lijie Grace Zhang, professor in SEAS, both of whom were elected earlier in 2024 as NAI senior members, a distinction awarded to rising stars in innovative technology and education.
“They are prolific inventors with inventions licensed to startup companies that have made significant progress toward reaching the market,” Coblitz said. “Narine’s key invention helps to improve the efficacy of heart surgeries, and Grace’s most advanced invention promises to revolutionize joint repair.”
Cross-disciplinary research and innovation has been a major focus of Sikka’s career, Coblitz noted. Sikka previously worked with another emergency medicine resident, Liz Clayborne, to develop a device to treat nosebleeds called NasaClip.
Sikka said he is thankful for GW’s institutional commitment to innovation.
“We’re really lucky,” Sikka said. “We have a very supportive technology transfer office. We have an incredible enter for entrepreneurship. We have a really engaged medical faculty and we have folks across campus to collaborate with, like in the School of Engineering, so we’re all working hard to develop new products for the future. A lot of people here at GW are doing great work.”
