Cavalier Catalyst · For industry
Bring your idea to the emergency department.
Cavalier Catalyst connects industry with UVA Emergency Medicine to develop, test, and deploy new tools in one of the most demanding clinical environments there is.
We are not waiting to be approached. We are looking for partners.
The model
Catalyst starts earlier
Most academic-industry partnerships start when a company brings a finished product looking for a trial site. Catalyst starts earlier.
We open the ED as a working laboratory: our clinicians, engineers, and data scientists work alongside your team from problem definition through deployment and evaluation.
Catalyst works with your team through all five phases.
Your ideaWhere Catalyst joinsWhere a usual trial site joinsCliniciansEngineersData scientists
What you get
Real-world testing
In emergency care as it actually runs, with the clinicians and patients who would use what you build.
Clinical insight early
Emergency physicians working with your team while the design is still flexible, not after it’s fixed.
Evidence that holds up
Evaluation planned in from the start, in the setting where the tool will be used.
What we offer
A research office built for the emergency department
The Emergency Medicine Research Office runs the day-to-day of research in the department: trial operations, regulatory support, coordination, and data.
01
Clinical trial operations
Screening, enrollment and follow-up, with support for regulatory compliance and study management. The office supports 10 studies, from device feasibility to drug trials.
Studies the office supports02
Study coordination
The office offers clinical research coordinator (CRC) support, data support and on-call support, so a study has people running it day to day.
Meet the research office03
Patient volume and diversity
Patients reach the emergency department first, and it sees people and conditions that clinics elsewhere in the health system may not. Coordinators can screen for a study early in the visit.
Why recruit in the ED04
Data and informatics infrastructure
Our data scientists engineer pipelines for physiological monitor data and health records, and the office offers data support for studies.
Informatics, AI & data science05
Engineering and data science collaborators
10 research faculty and 3 data scientists in the department, working with colleagues in UVA’s schools of engineering and data science.
See the peopleNot sure yet?
Tell us the problem. We’ll work out what it needs together.
Start a conversation
How partnering works
From a first conversation to launch
Partners come in at different points. The path from there is the same three steps.
Where you might start
- An idea
- Define the problem with the clinicians who face it.
- A prototype
- Shape the design while it can still change.
- In clinical testing
- Test in real emergency care, with the research office.
- On the market
- Deploy in the department and evaluate what it does.
Three steps
- 1
Conversation
Tell us what you’re building and the problem it solves. We’ll follow up by email to talk it through.
- 2
Scoping
If it fits a question we’re asking, we work out the scope, timeline and cost together with our faculty.
- 3
Launch
The work starts in the emergency department, with the research office’s coordinators screening, enrolling and following patients.
Licensing and technology transfer at UVA go through the UVA Licensing & Ventures Group.
The research behind it
Where your tool could fit
Partnerships work best where your technology meets a question we’re already asking. Here is what each of our research areas is asking now.
Informatics, AI & data science
The data, models and methods that run through every stage.
“Which patients are at risk of a condition no one has diagnosed yet?”
Built environments
How the places people live and move shape injury and health.
“How do architecture and urban design affect health and emergency care?”
Violence prevention
Counting gun violence where local reporting is thin.
“Where is gun violence undercounted, and by how much?”
EMS & prehospital care
Care from the 911 call to the ambulance bay.
“How should EMS systems be organized and medically directed?”
Injury biomechanics
How crashes injure people, from real cases to safer design.
“Which crash conditions produce which injuries, and in whom?”
Point-of-care ultrasound
Imaging at the bedside, in real time.
“When does bedside imaging change the diagnosis?”
Physical AI & robotics
AI that leaves the screen and acts in the room.
“Which emergency department tasks could robots safely assist with?”
Toxicology & addiction
Poisonings, overdoses and treatment that starts in the ED.
“What do emergency visits reveal about the course of the opioid epidemic?”
Digital follow-up & mental health
Tools that keep patients connected after they leave the ED.
“Which physiological signals warn of deterioration early?”
Global health
Emergency care and data science beyond Charlottesville.
“How can emergency care be strengthened in resource-limited settings?”
Start a conversation
Tell us what you’re working on
A few lines are enough to start. We’ll reply by email to set up a first conversation.
- What to send
- What your technology does, how far along it is (from idea to on the market) and what you’d hope to learn with us. The form asks for each.
- Scope, timeline and cost
- Worked out together for each project in the scoping step. Ask about yours in your first message.