media coverage

Frost & Sullivan awards Xagenic award for new product innovation leadership

May 20, 2014
Susanne Staer
Awards

Market research company lauds start-up for developing a breakthrough workflow while dramatically improving point-of-care diagnosis

(MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif) May 20, 2014 — Based on its recent analysis of the point-of-care diagnostics market, Frost & Sullivan recognizes Xagenic Inc. with the 2014 North America Frost & Sullivan Award for New Product Innovation Leadership.

Xagenic’s revolutionary product, the Xagenic X1™ system, is a point-of-care platform with intuitive features to provide lab-free molecular diagnostic testing. It is unique as a low-cost, simple, rapid sample-to-answer desktop instrument, requiring no manual sample processing or cold storage. Currently, the platform is in the beta-testing phase and is expected to launch between 2015 and 2016.

Dr. Shana Kelley and Xagenic were featured in the Globe and Mail on May 20, 2014.

Read the detailed Frost & Sullivan Best Practices Research Report report on Xagenic’s website. Xagenic is MaRS Innovation’s lead start-up company, in partnership with the University of Toronto: Xagenic news archive.

For its portfolio of cartridge-based tests, Xagenic focuses on infectious diseases (HSV 1+2, Flu A+B, CT/NG, strep A, group B strep, trichomoniasis, HCV and upper respiratory infections) that will benefit the most from rapid on-site testing. The company also intends to apply the platform to counter a critical public health threat—antimicrobial resistance.

Portfolio snapshot: UTEST in the Wall Street Journal, OtoSim & Sylleta win pitch competitions

April 14, 2014
Susanne Staer
Awards

Here's a snapshot of some recent portfolio activity: UTEST, the early-stage technology accelerator MI runs in partnership with the University of Toronto, was cited in the Wall Street Journal as…

WaveCheck breast cancer technology receives $100,000

OICR’s catalyst grant enables WaveCheck to open first partner site at MD Anderson Cancer Center in May

TORONTO, April 8, 2014 — People with breast cancer are a step closer to knowing if their tumour is responding to chemotherapy at the start of treatment, thanks to a $100,000 catalyst grant from the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR).

The funding builds upon MaRS Innovation‘s Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign for WaveCheck, which successfully raised over $50,000 from over 500 supporters worldwide in two months last fall.

Read Jane Gerster’s article for the Toronto Star about OICR’s catalyst grant for WaveCheck. This announcement was also covered in Metro, BetaKit and Council of Academic Hospitals of Ontario’s Catalyst newsletter.

WaveCheck, a clinical technique invented, refined and tested by scientists at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and Ryerson University over 20 years, aims to show whether chemotherapy is actually destroying a breast cancer tumour at the beginning of chemotherapy treatment (in as little as four weeks), rather than at the end of treatment (typically four to six months).

In early clinical testing, WaveCheck’s inexpensive, non-invasive, image-guided technology (shown here) shows promise as an accurate, efficient way to monitor tumour response. Sunnybrook has partnered with GE Healthcare to co-develop WaveCheck as a clinical tool. — In early clinical testing, WaveCheck’s inexpensive, non-invasive, image-guided technology (shown here) shows promise as an accurate, efficient way to monitor tumour response. As of March 2015, Sunnybrook has partnered with GE Healthcare to co-develop WaveCheck as a clinical tool.

In early clinical testing, the non-invasive, image-guided technology has shown promise as an accurate, efficient way to monitor tumour response, opening the door to tailored treatment.

“This is a significant step towards achieving the goal of personalized medicine. The clinical trials will confirm that information provided by WaveCheck can determine if the treatment is the appropriate one or that other options should be chosen, sparing patients the side effects of treatments that will not likely be successful,” said Dr. Tom Hudson, OICR’s president and scientific director. “If successful, WaveCheck could become a standard tool in the cancer treatment of the future.”

Techvibes highlights UTEST’s third cohort

Techvibes, a publication dedicated to covering latest trends in start-up culture and social and mobile news, covered the University of Toronto Early-Stage Technology (UTEST) program’s call for applications in an online article on March 1, 2014.

Applications for UTEST’s third cohort are open until April 17, 2014. Co-directors Kurtis Scissons and Mike Betts will work with selected applicants for a period of twelve months to guide their idea to market. Successful applicants receive work space for a year, mentorship, $30,000 in funding and access to industry expertise.

OtoSim Inc. and U of T collaboration makes MEdSim Magazine

MEdSim Magazine profiled OtoSim Inc. and their partnership with the University of Toronto to establish a Student Training Fund in otoscopy.

Led by a $200,000 donation by Mr. Ralph Chiodo of Active Green + Ross, OtoSim Inc. provided 66 OtoSim™ simulation units to U of T.

Otoscopy, the diagnostic examination of the ear, is one of the most poorly acquired medical skills in students because traditional methods of study rely on lectures and print material. Using the OtoSim™ simulation unit allows students to interactively improve otoscopy skills before they reach the clinic.

Whirlscape’s Minuum keyboard makes SmartTV typing easy

February 26, 2014
Susanne Staer
Media Coverage

University of Toronto Early-Stage Technology (UTEST) graduate Whirlscape Inc. released a video on February 25, 2014 showing how their Minuum keyboard can make typing on Smart TVs and consoles easy.

UTEST is currently accepting applications for its third cohort. Apply now.

Minuum, the “little keyboard for big fingers” is making waves in wearable technology with their disambiguation algorithm and advanced language modelling, which can be used on Android devices and smart watches.

Read Darrell Etherington‘s article about Minuum on Smart TVs and consoles in Tech Crunch and coverage in Geeky Gadgets, an online technology review and resource publication. You can also read more about the U of T science behind Minuum here.

UTEST grad Crowdmark profiled in The Globe and Mail article

February 18, 2014
Susanne Staer
Crowdmark

Crowdmark Logo: Grade Better Crowdmark, a graduate of the University of Toronto Early-Stage Technology (UTEST) program’s first cohort, was the focus of a February 17 article by Ivor Tossell, The Globe and Mail‘s technology culture columnist.

Dr. James Colliander, co-founder and CEO of Crowdmark — **Dr. James Colliander**, co-founder and CEO of Crowdmark.

Created by U of T professor James Colliander, Crowdmark allows educators to quickly and efficiently grade large amounts of tests and exams. Tossell highlighted Crowdmark’s innovation and ease-of-use for the grader. The product is cloud-based, meaning that a team of educators marking the same group of exams don’t have to be in the same room at the same time. Instead, grading can be done remotely.

Tossell spoke with Colliander and Lyssa Neel, Crowdmark’s chief operating officer and a former MI project manager. Here’s an excerpt from the article:

James Colliander, a professor at the University of Toronto, found himself staring at about 5,000 pages of papers from a national math exam. Traditionally, a cadre of markers would sit around a large table for marathon grading sessions, assembly line style, each one tackling the answer to one question before passing it on to the next marker.

Mr. Colliander hacked together an expedient: He scanned the pages into a software framework and distributed them to markers digitally. He was essentially able to parallelize the marking process.

Dr. Lyssa Neel, COO of Crowdmark and former MI project manager.

“The markers didn’t all have to be in the same place, so they could move much faster,” says Lyssa Neel, COO of Crowdmark, the company that, with Mr. Colliander as CEO, has brought the idea to market.

Crowdmark is an online service that takes the idea of distributed marking and scales it to an institutional level.

WaveCheck Indiegogo campaign co-directors featured in MedCity News article

MaRS Innovation’s Dr. Fazila Seker and Elizabeth Monier-Williams spoke with Deanna Pogorelc of MedCity News about how to define success for campaigns crowdfunding for technologies and research related to the medical field.

The article, in MedCity News‘ Hot Topics section, questions whether a crowdfunding campaign needs to reach its funding goal to be deemed successful.

Seker and Monier-Williams completed an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign in December for WaveCheck, a clinical technique developed to let women and men know if their breast cancer chemotherapy is working within weeks of beginning treatment instead of months later when treatment has already ended.

Here’s an excerpt from the article:

Fazila Seker, the director of technology and venture development at commercialization agency MaRS Innovation, said that one of the trickiest things about the crowdfunding industry is the notion that these platforms have an established crowd that’s lurking around looking for the next best thing.

“You can’t rely entirely on that,” she said. “You need to go out there and do your research and create your own following.”

BCS’s Bedside PEWS™ covered in Hospital News

Bedside Clinical Systems and their flagship product, Bedside PEWS™, were featured in the February 2014 issue of Hospital News.

Bedside Clinical Systems‘ (BCS) flagship product, the Bedside Paediatric Warning System or BedSidePEWS™, was covered in the February 2014 edition of Hospital News.

The article, written by Rajesh Sharma who is president and CMO of BCS, explains how the technology helps decrease the amount of code blues in paediatric patients.

Invented by Dr. Christopher Parshuram of the Hospital of Sick Children (SickKids), Bedside PEWS™ is now in three hospitals in Canada, the United States and New Zealand. The technology received FDA approval last year.

Here’s an excerpt from the article:

The program digitally logs, charts, and evaluates seven vital sign items thst sre part of routine clinical assessments and then summarizes them into a singly score. From the BedsidePEWS™ score, care providers can better match the level of care with the patient’s required needs, thereby improving patient outcomes and reducing the number of urgent calls, code blue incidents and related deaths.

“Identifying at-risk patients is significant since approximately 5,000 children in North America experience a code blue event each year, from which too many children die or sustain neurological deficit. BedsidePEWS™ hopes to improve outcomes for these patients and their families,” says Dr. Parshuram.

$200,000 donation to establish Student Training Fund in Otoscopy at U of T

OtoSim™ device’s integration into medical students’ curriculum to help improve diagnosis accuracy by 44 per cent

A $200,000 donation led by Mr. Ralph Chiodo of Active Green + Ross will help establish a Student Training Fund in Otoscopy at U of T in partnership with OtoSim Inc.

TORONTO, ON (Feb. 5, 2014) — The University of Toronto (U of T) is creating a Student Training Fund in Otoscopy in partnership with OtoSim Inc., thanks to a $200,000 donation led by Mr. Ralph Chiodo, founder of Active Green + Ross. Other donors include some franchisees of Active Green + Ross and others among Chiodo’s friends and associates.

The Halldale Group, a publisher specializing in simulation and training information, covered this funding announcement.

Through the donation, undergraduate medical students will have access to better otoscopy training through the use of the OtoSim™ in their curriculum. Otoscopy, the diagnostic examination of the ear, is one of the most poorly-acquired medical skills in students, general practitioners and pediatricians, achieving a fifty per cent accuracy rate.

Ralph Chiodo’s donation allows OtoSim Inc. to provide 66 otoscopy training units, known as the OtoSim™, to U of T. The devices, which can be networked to facilitate mass training exercises, will help undergraduate medical students to be effectively trained to diagnose ear problems using an otoscope.

Watch how the OtoSim™ can be used in mass training exercises. Nearly 100 second-year medical students voluntarily attended the OtoSim™ training session to better prepare their otoscopy skills for the clinic.

“We are excited to be the first official OtoSim™ mass-training site and thank Mr. Ralph Chiodo for leading the charge on fundraising for this unique learning opportunity,” said Ian J. Witterick, professor and chair in U of T’s Department of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery.

“A clinical study demonstrated that with only a couple hours of group training, the accuracy of third-year medical students increased from 54 per cent to 78 per cent,” said Dr. Andrew Sinclair, OtoSim CEO and former senior director at MaRS Innovation. “Mr. Ralph Chiodo’s donation will help us to ensure that more medical students graduate with a much higher proficiency in this critical primary physical examination skill.”

Frost & Sullivan awards Xagenic award for new product innovation leadership

Market research company lauds start-up for developing a breakthrough workflow while dramatically improving point-of-care diagnosis

Portfolio snapshot: UTEST in the Wall Street Journal, OtoSim & Sylleta win pitch competitions

WaveCheck breast cancer technology receives $100,000

Techvibes highlights UTEST’s third cohort

OtoSim Inc. and U of T collaboration makes MEdSim Magazine

Whirlscape’s Minuum keyboard makes SmartTV typing easy

WaveCheck Indiegogo campaign co-directors featured in MedCity News article

BCS’s Bedside PEWS™ covered in Hospital News

$200,000 donation to establish Student Training Fund in Otoscopy at U of T

OtoSim™ device’s integration into medical students’ curriculum to help improve diagnosis accuracy by 44 per cent

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