After a flurry of speakers and announcements in the MaRS Discovery District, three companies stood out from the pack yesterday at HealthKick 2015. Taking part in Canada’s largest health startup showcase, EMERpharma, Mindful Scientific, and QoC Health each walked away with a victory in their respective category and $20,000 in cash.
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Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals
EMERpharma is a startup drug development company focused on the development of efficacious, non-addictive treatment for ADHD and treatment for addiction disorders.
Medical Devices & Diagnostics
Mindful Scientific is developing the Halifax Consciousness Scanner (HCS), a portable medical device that rapidly assesses brain function to aid in the diagnosis, monitoring and management of concussion and other neurological problems.
Health IT
QoC Health provides patient engagement solutions to support shifting care to the community. These solutions save money, improve outcomes and user experiences.
“HealthKick was a culmination point of a massive groundswell of momentum in the health innovation cluster that has been building up over the past 6 to 12 months,” Zayna Khayat, Lead of MaRS Health and Director of MaRS EXCITE, told BetaKit. The annual event attracts over 350 Canadian and US investors to watch startups in medical devices, pharmaceuticals, and health IT pitch their innovations.
“[This year we had] larger attendees and a better mix of participants, stronger ventures pitching, more investment from major sponsors who want to be part of the action, incredible speakers who (I think) started a revolution,” Khayat continued. “The success of the 3 winning ventures from last year, sets the stage for us to watch and see what happens this year with the 3 winners – our newest gazelles in global health innovation.”