AVATAR MEDICAL, elected as the most innovative Start-up in MedTech
Among 60 applications received, 30 start-ups were selected to pitch during the Start-up Slams at MedFIT in different categories such as e-Health, implantable devices, tools (research, delivery, clinical development), monitoring, wearable device, IVD, imaging and surgical tools. AVATAR MEDICAL, a French start-up involved in Imaging, represented by Elodie Brient-Litzler, Chief Operating Officer, is the winner of this year’s edition of the Start-up Slams:
“We applied to the MedFIT Start-up Slams soon after AVATAR MEDICAL’s incorporation in July 2020 and we were honoured to be selected to pitch. This gave us a great visibility among members of the MedTech ecosystem and led to a number of interesting meetings and opportunities that we will explore in the coming months. We are proud to have been awarded the title of “MedFIT 2020 Most Innovative Start-up” which acknowledges the potential of our virtual reality technology and our approach to deliver it to surgeons. Thank you MedFIT!”
AVATAR MEDICAL, a ground-breaking spin-off from the Institut Pasteur and Institut Curie, leverages virtual reality and standard medical images (e.g. CT-scan, MRI) to instantly create realistic to-scale patient avatars for surgeons to use in pre-operative planning. Developed hand-in-hand with leading surgery departments, AVATAR MEDICAL radically changes how surgeons access, interpret and act upon the valuable clinical information contained in medical images. Benefitting from three years of advanced computer vision & AI research, AVATAR MEDICAL was incorporated in Paris in July 2020 by an experienced team of French and American founders, and also operates in the USA. The company currently focuses on improving the preparation of breast cancer surgeries and will explore further applications in oncology in 2021 in several pilot sites. The full commercial deployment of the regulatory approved (FDA and CE) version of the software platform is expected in 2022.
University of Greenwich, elected as the most promising technology in MedTech
20 TTOs, universities, research institutes and companies applied to the MedFIT Collaborative and Licensing Opportunity Presentations to showcase their technology in front of potential partners in order to entail a collaborative project and / or a licensing deal. 8 of them have been selected to pitch during MedFIT in 4 different categories: implantable devices and woundcare, drug delivery, IVD and smart technology. The University of Greenwich, a British project involved in implantable devices and woundcare, represented by Prof. Dennis Douroumis, received the “Most Promising Technology” award:
“The University of Greenwich is very proud and honoured for receiving the Award for the most promising technology after our pitch presentation at MedFIT 2020. The award gives strength to continue our work with our collaborators from the IMODE project (INTERREG 2seas) for further development of our 3D printed bioresorbable drug eluting scaffolds.”
The University of Greenwich has developed a 3D additive manufacturing process for printing polymeric bioresorbable drug eluting scaffolds (stents). The technology can be applied to patients suffering from coronary artery diseases and presents the following advantages such as the fabrication of personalized 3D printed stents with novel designs. The stents present excellent mechanical properties and can deliver more than one drug substances (e.g. antiproliferative, antiplatelet actives). The stents will disappear from the patient’s body 12 – 24 months after implantation. In the future 3D printed stents will be possible to be fabricated just before the surgery by taking into account the clinical needs of the patients.
