ECHO PITCH 2021

ECHO Pitch

Note: this event has now passed.

Join us October 14, 2021 for ECHO PITCH, a special event where five top cardiovascular health start-ups compete for funding from a $250,000 pool in front of a panel of judges and a virtual audience.

These five finalists have been selected from the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research’s Entrepreneurship for Cardiovascular Health Opportunities (ECHO) program, where they received 12 months of hands-on entrepreneurship training and mentorship.

Event Details

  • What: ECHO PITCH 2021
  • When: Thursday, October 14, 2021
  • Time: 1 – 4 p.m.
  • Registration: Click here to register
 

Agenda

ECHO PITCH will feature five pitches at 20 minutes each followed by a keynote speaker and concluding with the funding award announcement.

Time Details
1:00 – 1:15 PM INTRODUCTIONS
  Prof. Christine Allen
Associate Vice-President and Vice-Provost, Strategic Initiatives, University of Toronto
  Dr. Mansoor Husain
Executive Director, Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research
  Dr. Soror Sharifpoor
Director-Strategy & Translation, Translational Biology and Engineering Program, Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research
1:15 – 1:55 PM PITCH COMPETITION — SESSION 1
  Pitch-1: Cardian Diagnostics
  Pitch-2: KardioLabsAI
1:55 – 2:05 PM BREAK
2:05 – 3:05 PM PITCH COMPETITION — SESSION 2
  Pitch-3: MetabolIQ
  Pitch-4: Nurenxy
  Pitch-5: TissueCraft
3:05 – 3:15 PM BREAK
3:15 – 3:50 PM FIRESIDE CHAT
  Dr. Sumbul Desai
Vice-President of Health, Apple
  Dr. Heather Ross
Site Lead, Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research
Head, Division of Cardiology, Peter Munk Cardiac Centre
3:50 – 4:00 PM CLOSING REMARKS & AWARD ANNOUNCEMENT
  Dr. Mansoor Husain
Executive Director, Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research
4:00 PM PROGRAM CLOSE

Special Fireside Chat

ECHO PITCH 2021 will feature a special intimate session with a global health tech leader — Dr. Sumbul Desai, Apple’s VP of Health. This session is co-sponsored by TRANSFORM HF and our Translational Biology and Engineering Program.

A conversation with Dr. Sumbul Desai, Apple’s VP of Health on Empowering Users and Enabling New Medical Discoveries”

Dr. Sumbul Desai, Apple’s VP of Health
Dr. Sumbul Desai

Sumbul Desai, MD serves as Vice President of Health at Apple, overseeing health initiatives including clinical product development, innovative clinical partnerships and medical research. She also leads the regulatory and quality teams at Apple. Apple is also working with the best in the medical field, including Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, University Health Network, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Johns Hopkins University, to conduct landmark health studies and advance discovery with the ResearchKit and CareKit platforms. Apple recently launched its Health Sharing and Walking Steadiness features, adding to the many consumer health tools available on Apple Watch and iPhone including ECG, Irregular Heart Rhythm, Cycle Tracking and Hearing Health headphone notifications.

Dr. Desai recently served as Vice Chair of Strategy and Innovation in the Department of Medicine at Stanford Medicine, as well as Associate Chief Medical Officer at Stanford Healthcare. She also serves as Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine.

ECHO Start-up Finalists

Congratulations to the five companies that participated in our 2021 ECHO program and made it to this final stage. They are:

ECHO Pitch Judging Panel

Neil D’Cruz, MBA

Neil D’Cruz, MBA

Principal, ND Advisory Services

Eric Hixon

Eric Hixon

General Partner and Board Member, Gideon Hixon Fund

Jacki Jenuth

Jacki Jenuth, PhD

Partner, Lumira Ventures

Heather Ross

Heather Ross, MD, MHSc, FRCP(C), FACC, FCCS

Loretta A. Rogers Chair in Heart Function
Pfizer Chair in Cardiovascular Research
Site Lead, Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research
Head, Division of Cardiology, Peter Munk Cardiac Centre
Professor of Medicine, University of Toronto



About ECHO

ECHO is a specialized hands-on training program led by veteran entrepreneurs and consultants across a variety of sectors. Its mission:

(1)   Provide innovators of cardiovascular technologies with entrepreneurship training, mentorship, networking and funding opportunities;

(2)   Transfer research innovations and intellectual property from academic and hospital institutions into the economy;

(3)   Create more start-ups in the Canadian cardiovascular health sector.

ECHO is funded and organized by the Translational Biology and Engineering Program, at the University of Toronto and the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research, in partnership with the Health Innovation Hub.