A panel of experts in life sciences and business evaluated presentations and offered feedback. From left: Sean Ianchulev, MD, MPH, Nishta Rao, Brent Stackhouse, Sara Barrington, and John Hammitt.
Teams of young innovators recently presented ideas on how to benefit patients to a panel of experts at the Mount Sinai Innovation Showcase. The event, hosted by Mount Sinai Innovation Partners (MSIP) with support from the SinaInnovations Committee and the Institutes for Translational Sciences (ConduITS), was held on Thursday, February 14, in Davis Auditorium.
The innovators, who came from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, SUNY Stony Brook, Cooper Union, and other New York institutions, included the three finalist teams and one wild-card entry from Mount Sinai’s Health Hackathon in October 2018. After sketching out solutions to address rare diseases at the Hackathon, the teams received coaching from MSIP and the eLabNYC mentoring program and learned how to merge product development with business strategy and improve their product based on consumer needs.
A diet-tracking app called Demeter was pitched by young innovators. From left: Alyssa Mango, Ryan Neff, and Leah Osnos.
Their projects included: Eye Can Do, a smartphone-based eye tracking technology for immobile patients; Walk Thru, a portable accessory for patients using a walker to facilitate getting through doors; Demeter, a smartphone application that provides diet tracking, management, and symptom assessment for patients of metabolic disorders; and Dormi, a tracking device to assess and monitor sleep patterns.
A panel of experts in life sciences and business fields offered feedback, including: Jim Heitner, Associate Director of the Mount Sinai i3 Accelerator; Nishta Rao, Director of Princeton Innovation Center BioLabs; John Hammitt, Executive Director of HITLAB Healthcare Innovation Lab; Sara Barrington, Chief Executive Officer of Cynvenio Biosystems Inc.; Sean Ianchulev, MD, MPH, Director of the Ophthalmic Innovation and Technology Program at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai; and Brent Stackhouse, Vice President of Mount Sinai Ambulatory Ventures.
The teams are now pursuing next steps by improving prototypes, initiating clinical studies, and continuing to work with MSIP. The showcase event reinforced Mount Sinai’s mission to provide exceptional patient care and clinical leadership by cultivating innovation through research. Mount Sinai engages MSIP to translate discoveries into products or services that benefit patients.
Front row, from left: Sean Ianchulev, MD, MPH, Director of the Ophthalmic Innovation and Technology Program at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai; Sara Barrington, Chief Executive Officer of Cynvenio Biosystems Inc.; and John Hammitt, Executive Director of HITLAB Healthcare Innovation Lab. Back row, from left: Jim Heitner, Associate Director of the Mount Sinai i3 Accelerator; Nishta Rao, Director of Princeton Innovation Center BioLabs; Cynthia Cleto, Associate Director, Marketing and Outreach at MSIP; and Brent Stackhouse, Vice President of Mount Sinai Ambulatory Ventures.