On March 28th attendees from Hamilton’s life science community gathered at McMaster Innovation Park to witness the fifth annual Synapse Life Science Competition final showcase. The event showcased 14 teams who all presented informational posters. The top three finalists presented their innovations live on stage to a panel of industry judges, competing for over $85,000 in cash prizes and professional resources.
The top three finalists- Arinai, Dash MD and Amina Health – each had 25 minutes to impress the judging panel. Judges included David Young, Marketing Manager at Stryker, Scott E. Freidman, Founder of D21 Ventures and Gordon Alexander, Healthcare Industry Tech Leader for IBM Innovation Space.
Dash MD won the grand prize for their mobile personal health platform. Dash MD’s platform improves the quality of care that patients receive, improves patient-oriented outcomes and connects the dots in health care by providing patients with all of the tools and resources they need to successfully manage their recovery. Dash MD currently has customers and traction working with Hamilton Health Sciences among many other Ontario hospitals and LIHN’s. They took home $30,000 in cash, a $5,000 consulting package with Shift Health, a one-year membership with Hamilton Chamber of Commerce, a one-year membership with Life Sciences Ontario, and a $5000 IP Package. Dash MD was also awarded the additional prize of 6 months support at IBM’s Innovation Exchange, bringing their prize value to nearly $60,000. “Synapse was an incredible opportunity to share more about our work. We’ve helped thousands of patients to date, and this additional exposure, support, and funding will help propel Dash MD forward. We’ve made big steps towards putting the patient at the centre of the healthcare experience, but we’re just getting started. We’re grateful to Innovation Factory, Synapse, and the City of Hamilton for their support of our vision,” said Zack Fisch CEO and co-founder of Dash MD.
Amina Health took second place receiving $7,500 in cash, a $2,000 consulting package Industry Link, a one-year membership with Hamilton Chamber of Commerce, a one-year membership with Life Sciences Ontario, and a $5,000 IP Package courtesy of our legal partners Gowling WLG, Ridout + Maybee, and Aird McBurney, totaling at over $16,000 in value.
Arinai (currently a member of the IBM HHS Innovation Exchange) took home $5,000 in cash, a one-year membership with Hamilton Chamber of Commerce, a one-year membership with Life Sciences Ontario, and a $5,000 IP Package, totalling at over $11,000 in value.
Braze Mobility won the poster prize of $2,500 cash.
Stryker proudly supported the 5th Annual Synapse Life Science Competition.
“At Stryker our mission is together with our customers, we’re driven to make healthcare better and as a driver of Health Care Innovation in the market and proud member of the Hamilton community, this competition just felt like a natural fit for us. These start-ups will one day have the ability to help many people, and we are proud and honoured to have the ability to help them get to where they want to be,” said David Young, Marketing Manager at Stryker in his opening remarks.
The event concluded with the judges announcing the winners live on stage “the quality of all posters and pitches we saw this evening were extremely high, there are a lot of companies here with so much potential, and we see future success in all of you,” said Gordon Alexander of IBM Canada Ltd.
The Synapse Life Science Competition final showcase is the culmination of months of hard work. Back in January, the competition paired life science innovators with business students from McMaster University. Together, each team produced both business and commercialization plans for their ventures. All the finalists also participated in training sessions to help them complete the plans and fully prepare for the final showcase