Healthcare applications of augmented and virtual reality are on the rise, as are the funding opportunities available to startups developing new AR and VR technologies. The latest is the 3rd Annual Medical Capital Innovation Competition, which will award a total of $100,000 plus mentoring and co-development opportunities to global AR/VR/XR startups in professional and collegiate divisions. Applications are accepted Jan. 14 through March 15, 2019.
Presented by Cleveland-based accelerator BioEnterprise, the Medical Capital Innovation Competition is an annual two-day event that combines mentoring sessions with national healthcare leaders, product demonstrations and a live pitch competition before an expert panel of judges. The 2019 event will be held April 17-18, 2019, at the Global Center for Health Innovation in Cleveland, Ohio, and the pitch competition on April 18 is open to the public.
“Augmented and virtual reality are already revolutionizing IT, education, retail, marketing and other sectors, and healthcare is becoming the next great frontier of these technologies,” says Aram Nerpouni, president and CEO of BioEnterprise. “The Medical Capital Innovation Competition will give AR, VR and XR healthcare startups access to resources that will help them innovate in ways that improve patient care and patient experience.”
According to PitchBook, the national deal count for AR and VR companies in 2017 reached nearly 650, and while healthcare accounts for a small portion of that figure, its share of deal flow is on the rise. Over the last decade, there have been nearly 140 AR/VR/XR deals in healthcare, totaling nearly $5 billion in capital invested. The majority of such deals have happened in the last five years; total deals in healthcare AR/VR/XR have increased nearly 1,000% over that time. Current healthcare-related applications of AR and VR can be found in treatment of mental health conditions such as PTSD, anxiety, phobias and dementia; surgical training and guidance; pain management; patient education; and digital diagnostics.
The Medical Capital Innovation Competition draws teams from around the world every year; in fact, in 2018 alone, the event drew 180 applicant teams from 24 countries and 33 states. Past collegiate teams have hailed from Case Western Reserve University, Johns Hopkins University and Carnegie Mellon University. Judges for the 2019 MCIC include:
- Anil Jain, M.D., VP and Chief Health Informatics Officer, IBM Watson Health
- Srinivasan Suresh, M.D., Chief Medical Information Officer, UPMC
- Sonja O’Malley, Senior Director Commercialization, Cleveland Clinic Innovations
- Jeffrey Reis, Vice President, Fund Management, Healthbox
The winning professional teams of 2018 were VastBiome of Houston, Texas, which uses AI to identify how the microbiome impacts diseases to enable personalized cancer medications; nGageIT of Anaheim, Calif., which developed an ingestible nanoparticle bar coding technology for measuring medication effectiveness; and EBT Medical of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, which developed a non-invasive neurostimulation therapy for pelvic floor disorders.
“The mentoring was highly beneficial because we got feedback that helped us make important conclusions from the product and business development perspective,” says Kadri Haljas, CEO of Finland-based Triumf Health, which utilizes gamification to provide psychological support to chronically ill children and was a 2018 competitor in the Medical Capital Innovation Competition. “Being from Europe, we benefitted a lot from feedback from experts in the U.S., which gave us confidence to proceed with our journey of entering the U.S. market.”
BioEnterprise receives support for the Medical Capital Innovation Competition from Cuyahoga County, JumpStart, HIMSS (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society) and the Global Center for Health Innovation. Healthcare partners include Cleveland Clinic Innovations, University Hospitals, The MetroHealth System and ProMedica. Supporting sponsors include Case Western Reserve University and Develoco.
To register for the 2019 Medical Capital Innovation Competition visit mcic.bioenterprise.com.
About BioEnterprise
BioEnterprise is a business formation, recruitment, and acceleration effort designed to grow the Northeast Ohio healthcare industry. Located in Cleveland, at the Global Center for Health Innovation and in University Circle, BioEnterprise provides management counsel and support services to health IT, medical device, and biopharmaceutical companies. In addition, BioEnterprise convenes and leads strategy for industry-building initiatives such as HIT in the CLE and the Global Center for Health Innovation. BioEnterprise founders are Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland Clinic, and University Hospitals. Additional technology partners include the NASA Glenn Research Center, Cleveland State University and BioOhio. Since 2002, BioEnterprise and its partners have created, recruited and accelerated more than 350 health IT, medical device, and biopharmaceutical companies, and have helped these companies raise more than $2 billion in new funding.