10 companies, 5 nations, 1 accelerator: A wide range of innovative health care solutions
Participants of the 2023 MedTech Accelerator program demonstrate their company's noninvasive, highly accurate cardiac pressure measuring and monitoring device on a grad student as MedTech Accelerator Director Rick Hall (far left) and Dr. Steven Lester, medical director for Mayo Clinic’s Discovery Oasis and co-founder and chief medical officer of the MedTech Accelerator (second from left), look on. Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU News
The 10 companies participating in the 2025 Mayo Clinic and ASU MedTech Accelerator program hail from five different nations and are the first cohort to have representation from life science companies.
The accelerator provides emerging companies with a multiday immersive curriculum in health care entrepreneurship, including: lectures and workshops with world-class scientific and engineering experts; resources to navigate regulatory pathways; and tools for product commercialization and customer acquisition. Additionally, participants attend mentoring, business development and networking events.
Biomedical growth has skyrocketed in the greater Phoenix metropolitan over the past few years, making it a fertile area for discovery and company relocation. It ranks number one in the nation for life science job and graduate growth and in the top five national emerging life science markets. The draw is so strong that one of the 2024 MedTech Accelerator cohort members, MiiHealth, decided to relocate to Arizona from London after seeing everything the area has to offer.
"Arizona is recognized for its rich environment of innovation and entrepreneurship, and with this year’s cohort, we have yet another international group of innovative founders that are bringing novel approaches to very real health care problems. We anticipate the accelerator to be a launching point for many of these companies to continue working in and around our organizations by capitalizing on our joint strengths,” said Rick Hall, MedTech Accelerator director.
After the two-week curriculum portion of the program, the cohort will remain a part of the MedTech Accelerator support network, allowing continued collaboration and guidance.
"The accelerator began as a vision to merge ASU's leading innovation with Mayo's world-class clinical expertise to advance early and mid-stage companies. Today, it has evolved into a thriving ecosystem of inspiring medtech leaders. As we expand the accelerator's focus to include life sciences companies, one thing remains unchanged: our sincere passion for nurturing organizations that bring forward life-changing products and services with a global impact,” said Dr. Steven Lester, medical director for Mayo Clinic’s Discovery Oasis and co-founder and chief medical officer of the MedTech Accelerator.
From liquid biopsies to male infertility to menopause, this year’s participating companies represent a wide range of innovative health care solutions:
HealthTech Connex, Surrey, British Columbia, Canada. HealthTech Connex is bridging the gap between research and real-world applications in advanced brain care. With clinical neuroscience and brain vitality as a premier focus, they aim to connect science and R&D to product breakthroughs, providing translational neuroscience innovations to care sectors and communities worldwide.
- Hoopcare, New York, New York/Paris, France. Hoopcare is building AI agents designed to optimize patient evaluation, education and follow-up throughout the surgical and anesthesia journey. Through this synergistic ecosystem of AI applications, Hoopcare enables every stakeholder to have full visibility into the end-to-end patient journey.
- IG Technology Ltd., Sheffield, South Yorkshire, United Kingdom. IG Technology Ltd. is a medical product development and manufacturing company dedicated to merging state-of-the-art technology with technical expertise. Their product "Legacy" is a medically approved Intermittent Pneumatic Compression (IPC) device used to help prevent blood clots in the deep veins of the legs. It uses cuffs that fill with air to squeeze the soleus and gastrocnemius muscles, simulating the effects of walking.
- iRegained Inc., Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. IRegained is a digital neurotherapeutics (DTx) company that has developed a scientifically proven, smart, in-clinic digital rehabilitation system to rewire the brain through the power of neuroplasticity, empowering stroke and traumatic brain injury survivors to assist in use of their hands. Using the MyHand System, patients can identify the task/activity of daily living (ADL) they want to achieve (for example, sign a document, hold a coffee mug, play the guitar, etc.), and follow the corresponding protocols that target that particular function.
- Paterna Biosciences, Salt Lake City, Utah. Paterna Biosciences' pioneering in vitro spermatogenesis offers new hope for starting a family by driving testicular stem cells to develop into healthy, optimized sperm, significantly improving the likelihood of a successful and healthy pregnancy. The company's mission is to improve human reproductive health by partnering with in vitro fertilization (IVF) clinics to enhance success rates, engaging men in optimizing their reproductive health, and expanding the treatment options for IVF.
- Pharus Diagnostics, Zhubei City, Taiwan. Pharus Dx specializes in advanced diagnostic technologies with the mission to detect cancer early, help provide more treatment options and improve patient outcomes. They aim to create exceptionally precise and accurate tests by integrating liquid biopsies, advanced biomarkers and machine learning.
- QT Medical Inc., Los Angeles, California. QT Medical is a medical device company that aims to make hospital grade 12-lead electrocardiograms (ECGs) accessible to everyone. Focusing on innovations in the field of telemedicine and home care, they invest in research and development of products that will bring better cardiac care to patients with the mission to improve heart health for everyone through superior technology.
- The Pause.ai, Phoenix, Arizona. ThePause aims to integrate personalized artificial intelligence into menopause management. With AI’s ability to analyze vast amounts of data and learn individual health patterns, the company hopes to offer more precise, tailored treatments to each individual woman.
- Toby, between Boston, Massachusetts, and New York, New York. TOBY, the diagnostic startup named after Sherlock Holmes’s bloodhound, has developed a single urine test that can detect the three main urologic cancers: bladder, kidney and prostate. This test combines the precision of spectroscopy with cutting-edge computational algorithms to deliver tailored cancer screening by uncovering VOC disease patterns. They have completed research-grade clinical validations on over 1,500 samples for bladder, kidney and prostate cancers, achieving over 95% sensitivity and specificity. Validation studies are ongoing for pancreatic and lung cancers, with women’s cancers (ovarian, cervical, breast) next in line.
- WellBeings, Scottsdale, Arizona. WellBeings integrates and normalizes real-time data from wearables with EMR and diagnostics tests. The company hopes for its foundation health AI to unlock cutting-edge precision health insights and enable proactive, preventative and individualized health recommendations.
Learn more about the Accelerator at medtechaccel.com.
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