Neal Piper and his son Noah turned a tough diagnosis into a bright idea. Photo Eze Amos
Neal Piper watched his son Noah trying to play with his twin sister and thought there had to be a better way.
Noah was diagnosed with cancer when he was 3 years old. His treatment required him to go on enteral nutrition, often called tube feeding. The feeding devices available were an IV pole or bulky backpack, neither ideal for a boy who wanted to get on the floor and play with his sister.
Piper, an accomplished health care systems leader, worked with medical device experts to free Noah from his tether. The Luminoah Flow Enteral Pump is a handheld device about the size of a smartphone; the nutrition packs it uses aren’t much larger. It’s the first feeding device for people who need enteral nutrition outside hospitals—people who want to live their lives and play with their toys.
“We wanted to create a brighter future for people who need tube feeding,” Piper says. “This story is about a father that had an unmet need and had the courage to say, ‘Let’s learn from the needs of the millions going through the same thing and build a company to solve the problem.’”
The Luminoah story is also about collaboration—among engineers, innovators, oncologists, investors—and hope. “When our son was sick, we had a mantra: sunny days ahead,” Piper says. “When Noah started getting better, we realized we could help a lot of people.”
