Sarah Loughney, Kite Medical
We look forward to following along with the inevitable greatness of this powerful endeavor.
BOSTON (PRWEB) October 19, 2017
The HealthTech Venture Network (HTVN) extends their congratulations to 2017's ELEVATE pitch competition winner, CEO and Founder Sarah Loughney of Kite Medical.
The ELEVATE pitch competition is a “Shark Tank” style pitch session where several healthtech startups present their products, organizations and ideas to a panel of physicians, entrepreneurs and executives in the healthtech space - as participants receive professional feedback and exposure to healthtech investors and entrepreneurs.
Loughney backed her impressive credentials and experience during her ELEVATE pitch on Kite Medical's non invasive kidney reflux detection system, and with an overwhelming majority vote placed first in the competition.
The 2017 ELEVATE judges panel included:
Kim Walsh, Director, HubSpot for Startups
Aditya Humad, Co-Founder & CFO, KICVentures
Dr. Kingsley R. Chin, Founder & CEO, KICVentures
Bree Goodrow, Creative Director, KICCreative
Dr. Kalyan Kalwa, Founder, Health Innovators
Loughney earned her medical engineering degree from University College Dublin and has over 10 years experience in medical device product development. Loughney previously worked with Medtronic as a research and development engineer, where she worked on next generation cardiovascular devices. In 2008, she joined Novate medical, developing expertise in design control in a startup environment. Following that, she worked in Renishaw on a stereotactically guided, deep brain delivery system. Loughney completed the BioInnovate (Stanford affiliated) fellowship program in 2012/2013.
The clinical need for a less invasive solution to detecting kidney reflux (VUR) was observed during clinical immersion by Loughney with Professor Prem Puri, during the BioInnovate program in 2013. This grant aid funding was used to develop the Kite Medical device, optimize it through comprehensive bench-top experiments and proof of concept, pre-clinical studies. Since January 2016, Loughney and Paul Frehill - CTO of Kite Medical - have been committed to transforming the novel technology into successful business propositions.
"We're sending big thanks to Kite Medical for sparking innovation and progressive healthtech discussion with us. We look forward to following along with the inevitable greatness of this powerful endeavor," said HTVN Event Director Bree Goodrow.
The 2017 ELEVATE prize was a $10K Brand Strategy and Design package sponsored by KICCreative. As winner, Loughney will work with KICCreative on Kite Medical's branding, exposure, content and design - implementing creativity with strategy to foster even further entrepreneurial successes.
To pitch at future ELEVATE competitions, reach out to contact(at)htvnc(dot)com.