ASU, Mayo Clinic pitch competition highlights latest in care; winner is maker of software for health care providers that optimizes staffing

A “Shark Tank” style pitch event Thursday hosted by Arizona State University and Mayo Clinic gave a look into the future of medicine.

Eight companies from around the world gave five-minute pitches on products, platforms, devices and software that address gaps in health care to a panel of industry executives.

The winner was a company called Medecipher Solutions, which offers software for health care providers. Misallocating resources can burn out staff and reduce the quality of care for patients. The software optimizes staffing using predictive analytics and forecasts capacity and eliminates patient flow bottlenecks.

“Our software is really about planning the care team, putting in place care models that best predict the patient’s actual needs and aligns the available human capital resources of an organization to best serve the needs of that population,” CEO Stephanie Gravenor said.

Gravenor will be a panelist at a Phoenix Business Journal MedTech Accelerator event on May 18. Her company will also be featured in related articles by the outlet.

“It’s great,” Gravenor said of her win. “It’s such an honor. These companies are amazing, all coming from all across the world here to work and collaborate with Mayo Clinic and ASU in terms of innovation. To be among them has been an honor.”

Among the other products pitched were devices that detect, measure and monitor neurological disorders like cranial hemorrhaging and strokes in real time.

The devices, manufactured by a company named Sense Neuro Diagnostics, eliminate the guesswork involved in triaging the severity of a stroke, which can cost valuable time. The typical patient loses 1.9 million neurons every minute a stroke is left untreated. The company produces a brain monitor, an emergency room EMS field device and a similar device made for the military. Sense Neuro Diagnositcs won the audience voters’ prize.