The second Innovation Den contest run by Halifax-based QEII Foundation and the Nova Scotia Health Innovation Hub has boosted three young health innovation companies with $170,000 of funds.
The contest was set up last year with money provided by Chester couple John Hunkin and Susan Crocker. The pair had already established the Angels’ Den at St. Michael’s Hospital Foundation in Toronto and wanted to promote health innovation in Atlantic Canada. The couple provide $100,000 a year for ten years on condition the Foundation match their donation.
Winner of this year’s top prize, Dr. Emily Johnston, is the founder of Halifax-based Pain Coach. This year, she won $100,000. Last year, she won a smaller prize in the first Innovation Den; something that shows the value of the contest, Susan Mullin, president and CEO of the Foundation, told Entrevestor.
Johnston is a pharmacist, a field where many people may not expect to find innovation, Mullin said. “We are showing that clinicians of all sorts, and allied professionals, can see a problem and come forward with potential solutions that can be tested, and hopefully go on to scale.
“Even smaller investments can move some of this work forward…This is important for us to tell our donors as many of them can make smaller donations.”
The winners in the Medical Breakthrough Stream are all running their own startups and have hit significant milestones recently.
They are:
New Path Award for Health Innovation: Emily Johnston of Pain Coach - $100,000
Johnston is a clinical pharmacist in orthopaedics at Nova Scotia Health and founder and CEO of Pain Coach. The company is creating digital health tools for personalized pain control. Early this year, Pain Coach took first place at Halifax startup hub Volta’s annual Virtual Pitch Competition. The company also took part in the Atlantic cohort of the Women and Nonbinary Impact Network for Venture Capital, or WIN-VC, at UNB’s Pond-Deshpande Centre.
Accelerator Award for Health Innovation: Dr. Robert Chen of Kardio Diagnostix - $50,000
Chen is a co-founder of Kardio Diagnostix and an interventional pediatric cardiologist. Kardio Diagnostix uses AI to detect and analyze heart murmurs affecting children. The Halifax company recently expanded its research and development efforts via an agreement with a clinic in Toronto after gathering data from about 400 patients in Nova Scotia.
Belairdirect Rising Innovator Award for Health: Johanna Mercer of Scotiaderm - $20,000.
Port Williams-based Scotiaderm is developing solutions for a hidden problem; moisture associated skin damage. The company recently received $30,000 through Invest Nova Scotia’s GreenShoots program.
The Investment Den judges included Rob Barbara, managing partner at venture capital fund Build Ventures; Cathy Bennett, founding and general partner at women-focused venture capital fund Sandpiper Ventures; Jennifer Johnston, family physician and founder at Elle, MD Biotechnologies; and Travis McDonough, founder and CEO of Wellnify.ai, and previously CEO and founder of Kinduct.
Winners in the Next Big Idea Stream, who do not run businesses, included Dr. Janie Wilson, affiliate scientist, Nova Scotia Health professor, Dalhousie University School of Biomedical Engineering and Surgery and co-creator of KOAST; Andrea Meade, pharmacist and quality improvement lead at Nova Scotia Health; Lisa Nodwell, central zone pharmacy director at Nova Scotia Health; Dan Cashen, provincial director at Trauma Nova Scotia and Breanne Gillis, provincial manager at Trauma Nova Scotia.
