EIT Health-backed start-up Starling Surgical wins chance to pitch in US

They join the Medtech Innovator Showcase programme with their device QuickStitch, a solution designed to improve post-surgery wound closure

Starling Surgical, a med-tech company supported by EIT Health to develop a device designed to change the way surgical wounds are closed, won the Medtech Innovator Pitch competition in Dublin, Ireland on 8 April 2019.

Starling Surgical was one of 700 early to mid-stage companies that submitted applications to the Medtech Innovator competition, held at Dublin’s Shelbourne Hotel during the first day of the 8-9 April Medtech Strategist Innovation Summit. They will now join 49 other companies on the Medtech Innovator Showcase programme.

The Medtech Innovator Showcase programme presents the most innovative companies from around the world at two industry leading conferences in the United States.

Starling Surgical and the other winning companies will receive coaching and high-profile visibility at the WSGR Medical Device conference in San Francisco in June and The MedTech Conference in Boston this September.

An EIT Health Innovation Project for 2019, Starling Surgical has developed a better solution for post-operative wound closure, which is currently usually done with sutures or staples. Suturing is slow, and that can have a negative clinical impact while also increasing costs. Staples are faster but have higher infection rates, pain and worse cosmetic results. Starling Surgical’s “Quickstitch” device will provide superior results to the meticulously performed surgical sutures at the speed and convenience of a skin stapler.

Dr Cyrus Doctor, CEO of Starling Medical, who led a team at Trinity College Dublin in developing the QuickStitch, is shown in the photo above with EIT Health UK-Ireland Business Creation Manager Rosemary Gallagher (left) and EIT Health UK-Ireland Public Affairs and Communication Manager Roberta Giammaria (right) after winning the contest in Dublin.

CEO Credits EIT Health support

“We have been very fortunate to have recently received support, both financially and in partnerships through EIT Health partners and without that we certainly wouldn’t be able to take the technology forward,” said Dr Doctor. “That’s going to take us all the way from where we are now, which is having just finished our first pre-clinical trial, right up to FDA and CE approval. Of course, the financial support is great, but some of the training we have received from EIT Health is what made our pitch so much better. Also, the support that we’ve had from the partners programme introduced us to other strategic people who can be so helpful.”

Travis Davis, Starling Medical’s CTO, said: “Now we get to go on to San Francisco and the Medtech Innovator and carry on with what EIT Health has helped us learn, and do more pitching.”

MedTech Innovator Showcase companies receive full conference scholarships, are featured in expert panels, and gain access to exclusive partnering and networking.

Already assured a place in the Showcase programme, Starling Surgical will now be hoping to become one of the 25 companies that will receive a place in the MedTech Innovator Accelerator, a four-month virtual program, running from June-September. Companies in the MedTech Accelerator have the opportunity to receive continual in-depth, customised mentorship from senior leaders in the med-tech industry.

MedTech Innovator is the industry’s nonprofit global competition and accelerator for medical devices, digital health and diagnostic companies. The idea is to improve the lives of patients by accelerating the growth of companies that are transforming the healthcare system.