Joshua Medow

Career Medow joined UW Health University Hospital after completing his neurosurgical fellowship in endovascular neurosurgery at the University of Wisconsin. As an assistant professor of neurosurgery and biomedical engineering, Medow was the recipient of a three-year, $300,000 award from The Hartwell Foundation to "refine a new implantable device that will allow parents to easily monitor the pressure inside a child’s head." With this grant, he began developing an implantable intracranial pressure (ICP) monitor to track patients brain pressure. The device consisted of a tiny sensor embedded in a patient's skull which would display the intracranial pressure. In recognition of his invention, he received the Rising Star Physician Excellence Award.

Drawing from inspiration from a former neurosurgeon professor, Medow collaborated with Susan Hagness and Nader Behdad to develop a different approach to thermal therapies. They discovered that high-frequency microwaves could offer a comparable ablation zone to existing low-frequency antennas. As a result, the three professors received a $390,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to design smaller ablation antennas that can reach tumors through less invasive methods. By 2014, Medow was continuing to run the ICU but required more staff to effectively manage patients there. As a result, he launched a startup in 2014 titled Integrated Vital Medical Dynamics and created the "Digital Intern." The aim of the "Digital Intern" was to decrease the amount of time physicians spend in the ICU monitoring patients by alerting a doctor when patients’ lab test results don't come back normal. During its testing, Medow stated the software sustained organ donors, reduced costs and blood usage by about 50 percent.