McGill University’s Faculty of Medicine will join forces with Centech, the École de Technologie Supérieure’s startup incubator, to accelerate a handful of medical tech startups in Montreal.

The joint medtech cohort will combine the strengths of several Montreal innovation hubs and other centres of excellence in medical technologies. Cohort members will divide their time between Centech and McGill’s Simnovation Hub, based at the Steinberg Centre for Simulation and Interactive Learning (Steinberg Centre).

The startups will gain mentorship from the Steinberg Centre and Dr. Raymond Hakim, founder of the Hakim Family Prize for Clinical Innovation in Health Care.

“We hope to capitalize on Montreal’s potential for the creation and start-up of tech companies in the medical field,” said Dr. Jake E. Barralet, Director of Innovation at the McGill Faculty of Medicine. “It’s essential that we support and encourage our best clinical innovators to commercialize the fruits of their research and discovery for the benefit of patients in Quebec and beyond,” he adds.

“Working collaboratively and relying on each participant’s strength is the way of the future,” said Richard Chénier, Director General at Centech. “We are pioneers in this and we want to increase Montreal’s renown in cutting-edge fields that demand this type of partnership. Several major institutions have successfully followed this path. Examples include the Boston and MIT centres of excellence in medical technologies. They form one of the greatest innovation centres in the United States.”

In May 2018, medical technology venture Saccade Analytics received the inaugural Hakim Family Prize for Clinical Innovation, including access to Centech and the McGill Dobson Centre for Entrepreneurship support programs.

For those members of the McGill community with a great idea for a clinical innovation project, submissions can be made at http://centech.co/en/submit-your-project before the August 3, 2018 deadline.