Dr. Karen Cross, the CEO of Volta resident company MIMOSA Diagnostics, has made The Toronto Star’s list of fourteen Canadian entrepreneurs to watch this year.

Cross, a native of Newfoundland and Labrador who is now based in Halifax, is a plastic surgeon and medical sciences PhD who was inspired to found MIMOSA in 2016 after her grandfather died from a leg injury that failed to heal properly. Her co-founder, CTO General Leung, is a magnetic resonance physicist.

MIMOSA is developing a handheld device to identify wounds like bedsores via ultraviolet light before they become visible to the naked eye. According to LinkedIn data, the company has 18 employees.

"MIMOSA provides a proactive approach to skin health, allowing clinicians to implement earlier interventions, or even prevent them from being needed at all,” says the company.

“Our products promote inclusive and equitable healthcare, enabling patients in remote areas and persons of colour across the globe to access the critical healthcare everyone deserves.”

The technology was approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration in 2019 and Cross told The Toronto Star she expects Health Canada approval to arrive later this year.