CAPCaT Big Company/Little Company Showcase Speakers: Leaders in MedTech Innovation, Health Equity

The 2022 CAPCaT Big Company/Little Company Showcase speaker lineup will feature authorities on topics that are top-of-mind among current and future medtech innovators: the forward-looking state of the market and the challenge of health equity.

The Showcase will take place virtually on Thursday, June 16 from 9am to 1:30 ET and will feature a stellar selection of speakers as well as:

  • Product pitches (and feedback from a panel of medtech investors and influencers) by the developers of 6 point-of-care devices that have received NIH grant funding through CAPCaT (the Center for Advancing Point of Care Technologies (CAPCaT) in Heart, Lung, Blood, and Sleep Disorders)
  • A panel discussion exploring best practices for startups seeking to tap into the resources of big medtech companies through strategic partnerships.
  • A presentation on small business funding opportunities and business programming available from the NIH.

The Showcase is free and open to all members of the medtech community, most especially startups, early-stage companies, and even students with just the germ of a life-saving, potentially game-changing idea. Register here.

Meet our Keynote speaker: Girardin Jean-Louis, a champion of education and health equity

A Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology at the Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Girardin Jean-Louis, PhD is also the Director of the Center on Translational Sleep and Circadian Studies and PRIDE Institute on Behavioral Medicine and Sleep Disorders Research. His work on several NIH-funded studies has informed more than 400 publications primarily in sleep/circadian sciences and cardiometabolic and brain injury.

Dr. Girardin Jean-Louis

Dr. Jean-Louis’ research emphasizes solutions to the multi-level barriers impeding the adoption of healthful practices in minoritized communities. He also is a highly admired leader of pipeline training and mentoring programs that foster sustainable careers for underrepresented scientists. His most recent honors reflect these commitments: In 2020 he was named ‘Pioneer in Minority Health and Health Disparities’ and one of The Community of Scholars’ most inspiring Black scientists in America. In 2021, he received the Sleep Research Society’s Mary A. Carskadon Outstanding Educator Award.

“Addressing the challenge of health disparities is for me a personal passion as well as a professional one. I firmly believe it should be a guiding principle for life sciences innovation at all levels because the potential for improved health outcomes across our society as a whole is immeasurable. I hope everyone attending this event goes away with just one idea around how their product — or their investment in medtech — can advance the cause of global health equity.”

Settle in for a freewheeling fireside chat: The State of Diagnostic and Point-of-Care Tech in 2022.

How has the market outlook for medtech innovators changed in the past year? In the past few months? Two influential venture leaders in the space will explore the topic during a “fireside chat” conversation:

Mara Aspinall

Mara Aspinall is a healthcare industry leader and pioneer committed to active civic involvement. She is Managing Director of BlueStone Venture Partners, a fund investing in life sciences technology companies in the US Southwest. She is also Managing Director of the Health Catalysts Group, a consulting firm dedicated to the growth of health information technology and diagnostics firms.  Aspinall is passionate about educating the health care community on the importance of diagnostics and personalized medicine. To that end, she co-founded the School of Biomedical Diagnostics at Arizona State University, the first school dedicated entirely to diagnostics as an independent discipline. During the pandemic, Mara emerged as a national thought leader on COVID diagnostics. She is also an Advisor to The Rockefeller Foundation on COVID and co-author on the Foundation’s national reports on the pandemic. 

 “I’m thrilled to be part of this year’s Showcase. My conversation with Kadir about the impact of diagnostics — in infectious disease and beyond — will be thought provoking and interesting.  

I am also looking forward to seeing how the six products being pitched are answering current and future needs in diagnosis — and how they and other innovators in this space are worthy of investor’s attention.”

Kadir Kadhiresan, PhD, is Vice President, Venture Investments, Johnson & Johnson Innovation. In this role, he works closely with J&J leadership to identify business needs and has responsibility for sourcing, investing, and managing venture investment opportunities.

Kadir Kadhiresan

Prior to entering business development, Kadhiresan led the R&D of multiple early-stage technologies and products in cardiac rhythm management and heart failure.  He was instrumental in the development of the cardiac resynchronization device for heart failure, now a multibillion-dollar product. At Heart Rhythm Technologies, a subsidiary of Guidant, he led the development of an ablation technology for treatment of atrial fibrillation and raised venture financing for the project.

He is devoted to advancing of the role of technology to improve and save lives and is often engaging in mentoring entrepreneurs to achieve their full potential.

M2D2 Director of Operations Mary Ann Picard said, “A central message of the CAPCaT Small Company/Big Company Showcase is the vital importance of strategic partnerships for startups trying to accelerate to market or exit. I look forward to hearing the experienced perspectives of Girardin, Mara, and Kadir on the different forms these partnerships can take — and the different routes that startups can take in forging them. All medtech innovators should join us on June 16, even if their product is just an idea right now.”

Join us June 16 from 9 to 1:30 ET — REGISTER HERE

About CAPCaT

The core mission of the Center for Advancing Point of Care Technologies (CAPCaT) in Heart, Lung, Blood, and Sleep Disorders is to support development and testing of promising “late-stage” point of care technologies that can be rapidly deployed to enhance the diagnosis, monitoring, management and/or treatment of heart, lung, blood and sleep disorders (NHLBI), with an additional interest in projects that incorporate complementary and integrative health approaches (NCCIH). These approaches include natural products, such as herbs, prebiotic, probiotics, and selective medical diets, and mind and body practices including acupuncture, meditation, manual therapies (e.g., spinal manipulation/mobilization), hypnosis, meditative movements (e.g. tai chi, yoga, etc.), and music/art therapies. 

Learn more about CAPCaT