Meet the winner of the T-CAIREM Shark Tank Pitch Competition: Connor Kapahi
One of the highlights of the recent T-CAIREM Conference was a Shark Tank Pitch Competition featuring several innovative start-ups using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to improve healthcare.
The five shortlisted start-ups squared off for the $25,000 prize by pitching their AI health products and services to four judges, including Anthony Chang (Artificial Intelligence in Medicine), Alistair Johnson (Glowyr), Mike Lord (Temerty Family Foundation), and Steve Wolinski (patient experience partner).
This year’s winner was solo entrepreneur Connor Kapahi, who recently received his Ph.D from the University of Waterloo’s Institute for Quantum Computing. We caught up with him to learn more about how his innovative medical device could help patients and doctors in the future.
What does your start-up, Mandel Diagnostics, do?
Our main product diagnoses age-related macular degeneration (AMD) with an automated screening test. AMD is the leading cause of vision loss, and affects 1 in 5 people over 60. Early detection enables clinicians to apply new treatments that save patients thousands of dollars per year compared to late-stage retinal injections. It also allows optometrists to treat patients without referring to an eye surgeon, and preserves patients' vision well into their 90s.
How does this tech work?
Our diagnostic device creates invisible patterns in a beam of light that interact with the retina, resulting in patterns in patients' vision. This technology enables a 1-2 minute screening test for AMD, a disease that destroys the central, high-fidelity part of a person's vision. New treatments can now prevent AMD progression if caught early, but clinics have no way to detect the disease at these crucial early stages.
How is AI used to make your device more effective?
Our core technology for detecting AMD and monitoring patients applies physics-based models developed from my Ph.D research— but that diagnostic tool is only the beginning. By bringing hardware with onboard AI inference into optometry clinics, we're opening a massive opportunity to provide vision healthcare practitioners with AI tools to analyze the mountains of patient data they're sitting on.
What inspired your interest in using AI for health and well-being?
My Ph.D was in quantum information, totally unrelated to healthcare! I arrived at vision technology after working with patients in pre-clinical trials. Hearing their stories showed me how my tools could impact millions of lives. Bringing a predictive diagnostic AI tool like this helps clinicians focus their limited time where it matters most, which is a win for everyone.
What's been your biggest challenge as an entrepreneur?
As a solo founder, balancing the endless list of urgent tasks is a constant challenge, and working alone during my Ph.D was at times lonely and demoralizing. Fortunately, joining the Velocity Incubator this fall changed everything. Working alongside world-class startups every day and receiving support from the coaching staff has been critical in securing our first customers.
What's the best part of being an entrepreneur?
Every day brings a completely new set of challenges. Being an entrepreneur feels like sitting at the front of a train, building the track as it moves—every day is exciting, rewarding, and drives me to work harder to move further, faster.
How has the U of T helped you on your start-up journey?
Pitching at the T-CAIREM conference was my first interaction with the U of T commercialization ecosystem. While the $25,000 grant enables us to deploy pre-regulatory research devices into optometry clinics today, the greatest value was meeting clinicians eager to adopt new technologies, connecting with founders outside the Waterloo ecosystem, and scouting talent from medical students and machine learning graduate students. I look forward to working closely with the U of T innovation community in the years to come.