This year brought in a record number of applications with over 1,100 submissions from 54 countries and 42 U.S. states. With less than a 5% acceptance rate, 50 companies were selected to participate in the MedTech Innovator Showcase, with a subset receiving a place in the MedTech Innovator Accelerator. Over four months, 25 Accelerator companies competed for a coveted spot in the Grand Finals. The five finalists are developing medical technology innovations in remote monitoring, patient safety and satisfaction, and prevention:
- Alva Health (New Haven, CT) is developing a real-time, wearable stroke monitor for older Americans living with high stroke risk.
- BioDevek (Brookline, MA) is developing an endoscopically-sprayable adhesive hydrogel to seal and protect surgical lesions after polyp removal.
- Caretaker Medical (Charlottesville, VA ) is developing a wireless finger sensor for continuous “beat by beat” blood pressure and hemodynamics remote monitoring.
- Cooler Heads Care (San Diego, CA) is developing an affordable wearable device so chemo patients can keep their hair.
- Nutromics (Brunswick, AUS) is developing a wearable continuous molecular monitoring platform that can track drugs, hormones, metabolites, and proteins.
The final competition will be both live in-person as well as livestreamed on Wednesday, Sept. 29 at 12:00 PM ET during the The MedTech Conference. Viewers will vote online and in-person to decide who takes home the $350,000 Grand Prize and title of MedTech Innovator 2021. Register to watch the competition livestream here.