AI-Guided Portable Ultrasound Device for Battlefield Medicine Wins Tech Transfer Award

The Federal Laboratory Consortium has selected AI-GUIDE, a medical device developed by MIT Lincoln Laboratory and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), for its 2026 Excellence in Technology Transfer Award, which recognizes federal laboratories and collaborators for outstanding work in moving technology from the lab into use. The device was developed with funding from the U.S. Army's Combat Casualty Care Research Program, and Lincoln Laboratory and MGH are now transferring the prototype to the startup company AutonomUS Medical Technologies, Inc.

Unlike ultrasound devices typically found in hospitals, AI-GUIDE is small and portable, making it suited to pre-hospital settings. It pairs custom-built AI software with commercial handheld ultrasound technology to help a user insert a guidewire and catheter into a patient's blood vessel, a capability especially important for military medics who must keep injured soldiers alive in the field, sometimes for days, before they can be evacuated to a hospital. The developers say AI-GUIDE allows medics with minimal specialized training to perform interventions otherwise impossible outside a hospital, improving patients' chances of survival.

Within three years, AI-GUIDE went from an idea proposed by the Combat Casualty Care program to a working proof-of-concept technology with its own startup company. After clinical testing at MGH proved its viability, Lincoln Laboratory and MGH staff founded AutonomUS Medical Technologies to commercialize it. The company secured U.S. Food and Drug Administration Breakthrough Device Designation, a regulatory fast-track pathway granted only to highly innovative technologies with lifesaving potential, along with funding from private investors and government agencies including the Department of the Air Force and the National Institutes of Health.

"This recognition reflects what effective technology transfer looks like -- aligning the Army's operational need with Mass General's clinical expertise and Lincoln Laboratory's engineering capabilities to deliver a solution with a clear path to impact," said Asha Rajagopal, Lincoln Laboratory's chief technology transfer officer. Most of the initial work on vascular access has already been transferred, and the AI-GUIDE team continues developing additional capabilities, including a peripheral nerve block technology for trauma care and pain management.

AI-GUIDE has previously won a Lincoln Laboratory Best Invention Award and an R&D 100 Award. Samuel Kesner, a technical staff member in the Systems Engineering Group who oversees the AI-GUIDE program at Lincoln Laboratory, said the achievement reflects the strength of the partnership among the Defense Health Agency, Lincoln Laboratory, Massachusetts General Hospital and AutonomUS Medical Technologies.