Startups to unveil cutting-edge point-of-care technologies at Boston medtech event

June 2, 2023

Contact:

Emily Gowdey-Backus, 978-934-3369 or Emily_GowdeyBackus@uml.edu

Nancy Cicco, 978-934-4944 or Nancy_Cicco@uml.edu

Startups to unveil cutting-edge point-of-care technologies at Boston medtech event

Medtech and life sciences entrepreneurs and investors forging the future of health care will come together Tuesday, June 6, to showcase pioneering technologies and grow the region’s medtech ecosystem.

The 2023 Point of Care Showcase and Pitch Event will be a free, in-person program beginning at 2 p.m. at Mintz, 1 Financial Center, 40^th Floor, Boston, to introduce innovations to improve the well-being of patients with heart, blood, lung and sleep disorders.

The event will be hosted by the UMass Center for Advancing Point of Care Technologies (CAPCaT), a business incubator funded by the National Institutes of Health. The center is housed within the Massachusetts Medical Development Center (M2D2), a joint venture of UMass Lowell and Worcester-based UMass Chan Medical School. M2D2 assists entrepreneurs with all aspects of moving new products and technologies from the drawing board to the marketplace.

“This year, our keynote session will feature Dr. Maria Berkman, head of medtech for Broadview Ventures, and V. Kadir Kadhiresan, vice president for venture investments at Johnson & Johnson, in what we expect will be a rousing fireside chat on entrepreneurship in biotech,” said UMass Lowell’s Bryan Buchholz, professor emeritus of biomedical engineering. Buchholz co-directs CAPCaT alongside David McManus, MD, the Richard M. Haidack Professor and chair and professor of medicine of the Department of Medicine at UMass Chan Medical School, where he is the founding director of the program in digital medicine.

Entrepreneurs from five companies developing point-of-care innovations will pitch their inventions before a panel of experts. These startups and products, which received funding from CAPCaT last year, include:

• VoluMetrix – A new method of noninvasive blood-flow analysis for heart failure patients
• VPG Medical – A suite of medical-grade, video-based, heath-monitoring software 

for mobile devices and personal computers 

• Brainstem Biometrics – A specific and non-invasive way to measure basic brainstem function
• InfraredRx – Innovations to manage peripheral artery disease
• General Prognostics – Technology to remotely monitor blood biomarkers

“The CAPCaT collaboration between UMass Chan and UMass Lowell has supported more than 30 small tech companies in their journey from idea to product. By helping these companies to conduct meaningful clinical trials and providing access to patient perspectives, clinician feedback, and entrepreneur communities, we have saved a few wonderful ideas from stalling and have shortened the time it takes others to get their product commercialized,” McManus said. “We are very excited to be holding our fourth annual 2023 Point of Care Pitch Event and Showcase featuring five CAPCaT point-of-care testing (PoCT) startups. Join us and open the doors to big company/little company strategic partnerships and grant funding opportunities.”

Creating a dynamic networking opportunity for attendees, the event’s venue is within walking distance of the Boston Convention Center, which will welcome hundreds of other entrepreneurs, researchers and funders working in the medtech and sustainability justice sectors to the 2023 BIO International Convention, from Monday, June 5 through Thursday, June 8.

Since its inception in 2007, M2D2 has vetted more than 250 medical device and biotech ventures and supported more than 100 startups. In total, M2D2 resident companies have secured more than $150 million in external funding for their innovations.

Individuals interested in attending the CAPCaT event should register here.