St. Joe's Start-up Companies

The Centre for Surgical Invention and Innovation (CSii) is a Canadian non-profit research incubator that leverages investment in space technology for use in the development of medical robotics and related technologies. CSii's primary product under development is the Image Guided Automated Robot (IGAR), which is capable of functioning in an MRI bore and can be adapted for any needle-based intervention in any part of the body under various imaging modalities. The system will be used for the accurate early diagnosis and treatment of early cancers, which will offer many benefits to patients, physicians, and hospitals. The organization has the support of two host organizations, St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton and McMaster University, which provide access to world-class facilities and opportunities to utilize strong proven clinical and research expertise to ensure that CSii's goals will achieve a wide benefit to Canada. CSii has also fostered support and partnership of key academic leaders and organizations across Canada and internationally. In addition to partnerships, CSii's commercial arm, Insight Medbotics Incorporated, has worked to establish partnerships in distribution and therapeutic device manufacturers. The group aims to collaborate with the Canadian Space Agency to build a fully autonomous robot capable of diagnosis and treatment of a number of medical/surgical emergencies that could be encountered on long space missions. The successful completion of this project will inspire a new era of healthcare technologies and solidify Canada's leadership in the field of robotics, AI, and associated new technologies in addition to creating high-value jobs.

Insight Medbotics is a Canadian medical device company that combines the accuracy of MRI with the precision of robotics. Their fully automated robotics system, IGAR, is designed to work in the challenging environment of the MRI suite and can be mounted on an MRI table. The system has potential applications for biopsy, therapy delivery, or device placement.
The company is committed to advancing MRI-guided robotic technology to procedures where accuracy and precision matter most to patients, physicians, and hospitals. They are developing a total MRI-guided solution for soft tissue imaging that will make new clinical scenarios possible, making MRI more accessible for patients, radiologists, and new non-radiologist users.
Fazila Seker was named the company's Chief Executive Officer as of Spring 2023. She has over twenty years of experience in nurturing new technologies through the commercialization process in Canada and the U.S. She led MOLLI Surgical through FDA and Health Canada clearance for its flagship breast cancer surgery product, establishing sales and clinical operations in the U.S. and Canada. Under her leadership, MOLLI Surgical established groundbreaking medical technology at some of the world's top hospitals.
Insight Medbotics was created as a start-up company by the Centre for Surgical Invention and Innovation (CSii) and MDA, one of Canada's largest and best-known high-tech companies. They have received significant funding, including product prototype and clinical testing via CSii and the Government of Canada's Network of Centres of Excellence (NCE) program.

Systemic Therapeutics Corp. is a Canadian pre-clinical stage biotechnology company specializing in the development of new therapies focusing on the master regulators of lipid metabolism, the sterol regulatory-element binding proteins (SREBP), based on first-in-class SREBP inhibitors. The company aims to provide new treatment options for metabolic conditions such as dyslipidemia and Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH). Richard Austin is the Co-Founder, Executive Chairman, and Chief Scientific Officer of Systemic Therapeutics. The executive team of Systemic Therapeutics is characterized by deep experience and proven track records of building and scaling businesses and drug developments across a variety of industries. The team includes physicians, scientists, geneticists, entrepreneurs, drug discovery, and intellectual property experts. The company is excited about bringing together world-class experts in human genetics, molecular and cellular biology, and medicinal chemistry into one team with the sole purpose of developing the next generation of medicines for the treatment of cardiometabolic diseases and their vascular complications.

Prognostiq offers the Clinical Care Cloud (3C), a secure cloud-based platform designed to display practice data for doctors and departments to enhance patient care. The 3C platform allows doctors and hospitals to analyze practice data anonymously, extract insights, and provide clinicians with the practice analytics they require for better clinical workflows. Developed by clinicians, the 3C platform focuses on the metrics clinicians want to improve their practice and is supported by clinical research, ensuring a consistently more refined and valuable tool.

Prognostiq offers 3 different support options to help with clinical MD practice change: (1) Solitary Deployment, which provides a brief consultative service designed to deploy the 3C platform effectively within a setting; (2) Deployment and Consultation, which involves deploying the platform and working with the clinical team to use the data to support individual or departmental change agendas; and (3) Whole-System Analytics, which acknowledges that clinical MD practice change can be multiplied by simultaneous system change that includes a team-based approach and spans across several service streams.

Infinotype is a company that develops personalized health solutions through the use of unique datasets and algorithms. They leverage predictive biomarkers to generate predictions at the individual level, empowering individuals to control and monitor their own health. The company's platform consists of point of care technologies, proprietary and curated datasets, connected technology, and human-environment responses. Infinotype's team is led by CEO and Co-Founder Jeremy Hirota, Assistant Professor at McMaster University who holds a Canada Research Chair in Respiratory Mucosal Immunology, as well as CTO and Co-Founder Andrew Doxey, Associate Professor at the University of Waterloo and University Research Chair.

TBIFinder is a specialized software that uses MRI data to locate and grade impaired brain regions. This helps in understanding, differentiating, and communicating complex symptom presentations for more efficient personalized treatment approaches. The software objectively assesses both functional and structural impairment and supports indirect measures of concussion through traditional neurological assessment methods by measuring the brain directly. The severity of damage in each brain region is assessed to help progress the intensity of exercises safely and prevent common setbacks caused by overexertion. The services are available for any patient who has obtained the required MRI scans. The TBIFinder team works with health professionals, including rehabilitation specialists, neuroradiologists, sports medicine specialists, and athletic therapists, as well as legal professionals, including personal injury lawyers, expert medical witnesses, and managing partners. The team comprises renowned medical physicist Dr. Michael D. Noseworthy, physiatrist Dr. Dinesh Kumbhare, Chief Operating Officer Nick Simard, and Consultant Neuroradiologist Dr. Stephan Ulmer, MD.

In partnership with St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton and McMaster University, Digital Medical Experts Inc. (DME) has developed artificial intelligence (AI) tools for enhancing psychiatric practice efficiency. Our interdisciplinary team, including experts from McMaster University, University of Toronto, and New York Institute of Technology, created a non-invasive and cost-effective method for assessing an individual's neuro-psycho-biological attributes. Trained using the data collected from hundreds of individuals, our AI algorithms analyze electrical brain wave activity measured using the electroencephalograph or EEG, to uncover hidden patterns, providing valuable insights for personalized treatment planning. DME's research indicates that our AI algorithms can offer clinical management advice with an accuracy matching or surpassing human psychiatric experts, particularly in diagnosing mental disorders, identifying suicidal ideation, and predicting treatment responses.

Our software can:

• Differentiate persons with different forms of bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, and schizophrenia from each other and from healthy individuals with 90% accuracy.
• Detect suicidal ideation using questionnaire data with 75 % accuracy and with up to 89 % accuracy using EEG analysis.
• Calculate the probability of response to different antidepressant medications, the antipsychotic clozapine cognitive behaviour therapy and transcranial magnetic stimulation with up to 90% accuracy.

Every year, lung cancer kills more people than colon, breast, and prostate cancer combined. Addressing this critical health challenge, Node AI uses Artificial Intelligence to improve lung cancer staging, particularly the low diagnostic yield of Endobronchial Ultrasound Transbronchial Needle Aspiration (EBUS-TBNA), which currently stands at only 38%-45%.  Co-Founded by thoracic surgeon Dr. Waël Hanna, Node AI is pioneering AI-driven solutions for lung cancer. The company has developed a deep learning-based algorithm that enhances real-time decision-making and streamlines workflow efficiency in EBUS procedures. This innovative technology significantly improves the diagnostic accuracy of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) staging, reducing reliance on operator skill and increasing accessibility. Node AI's mission is to translate world-class research into clinical practice, augmenting the decision-making capabilities of thoracic surgeons and bronchoscopists beyond what they could achieve on their own.