St. John’s-based PragmaClin Research has won first place and $25,000 in Memorial University’s annual Mel Woodward Cup, as Co-Founders Bronwyn Bridges and Gord Genge prepare to trial their software and hardware suite for helping Parkinson’s patients.

PragmaClin’s technology — dubbed PRIMS, or Parkinson’s Remote Interactive Monitoring System — is designed to allow clinicians to perform assessments on patients without the need to be physically present. Bridges said in an interview that a key difference between PRIMS and similar systems is that, instead of attaching sensors to a patient’s body, it relies on depth-sensing cameras to track their movement and gather data on their physical abilities.

So far, Bridges and Genge have developed a minimum viable product and are running a “usability study” that will end in July. Afterward, they plan to begin clinical trials in partnership with a group of physicians across Canada.

“We're hoping that through that clinical trial, we'll be able to gain some traction to get our first outside sales and to really be able to enter the market,” said Bridges, who is a pharmacy PhD candidate at Memorial University.

Genge, meanwhile, is himself a Parkinson’s patient and the original proponent of the idea for PRIMS. He and Bridges met when he was a patient at a lab where she worked as part of her academic studies.

“(Genge) has always been very invested in finding ways to help other patients not have to struggle,” said Bridges.

“So he's done a lot of research over the past couple years about competing companies and other types of devices, and there's not really anything in the same full spectrum that we have.”

So far, she said PragmaClin has raised about $188,000 of non-dilutive funding from the provincial government and National Research Council to build its MVP. And she is planning an equity funding round in the next six months to a year to fund clinical trials and hardware manufacturing.

The Woodward Cup win is proving to be a boon on that front, she added, with several prospective investors already having reached out to her and Genge.

“We've already gotten approached about a few opportunities that we are able to jump in on,” she said. “And so hopefully we will get some investment into our company within the next few months to really gain some traction.”

So far, PragmaClin’s team includes its two co-founders and two non-staff advisors. Bridges plans to use some of the Woodward Cup money to hire a software engineer.

The Woodward Cup, meanwhile, is the annual competition that presents cash and in-kind services to MUN students who launched startups at the university and plan to develop them into companies once they graduate. The winner and runner-up receive $25,000 and $15,000 respectively, as well as in-kind services.

This year’s runner-up was MechMonkey, which is an online marketplace for vehicle maintenance services that allows users to browse local garages and dealerships, as well as make appointments and track the work being done on their cars.

So far, MechMonkey is open to users in St. John’s and the surrounding area, with plans to expand its geographic footprint. Founder Barath Sundar is in the process of earning a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from MUN.

The Woodward Cup also added two smaller prizes this year.

In addition to the $25,000 prize, PragmaClin also won the Fry Family Foundation Entrepreneurship Award for Women and Non-Binary Leadership.

And another software startup, Cannaby, bagged the Early-Stage Idea award.

Cannaby, founded by master of science student Laura Mateo and partner Saioa Arrizabalaga, aims to educate users on safe cannabis consumption via a customizable dosage calculator.