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Knoxville, Tennessee medical device startup Winter Innovations placed first in the Get Started Medical pitch, a Shark Tank-style pitch to a panel of healthcare judges. Winter Innovations bested seven other competitive startups, chosen from a very long list of applicants, and was awarded $20,000 for first place.

Winter Innovations' mission is to create simple orthopedic solutions to improve patient outcomes. Co-Founder, Lia Winter, won the Get Started Medical Pitch Competition during Innovate South for their patent-pending surgical needle, EasyWhip. This surgical suturing needle will be used in orthopedic reconstruction procedures, like ACL and rotator cuff surgery. According to Winter, each year over 50,000 reconstruction procedures need to be re-done because of graft stitching failures. 

The distinguished judging panel included:

• Aimee Quirk – CEO of innovationOchsner, Ochsner Health System
• Cian Robinson – Director of Development and Operations, Lafayette General Health
• Dr. Lawrence Simon – Medical Director, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana
• Sujata Gosalia – Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer, Cox Communications
• Molly Hegarty – CEO, Junum

If you weren’t there, here is a short introduction to the seven competitors:

• Winter Innovations develops novel orthopedic surgical tools to improve patient outcomes in high-risk procedures.
  
• Vascugenix of Little Rock, Arkansas is a medical device company focused on developing innovative products to improve interventional vascular procedures.
• NeuroFlow of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is a digital health company combining workflow automation, patient engagement tools, and applied AI to promote behavioral health integration in all care settings.
• Lineus Medical of Fayetteville, Arkansas is a patented SafeBreak Vascular device is designed to prevent IV catheter dislodgement in hospitalized patients.
  
• Lapovations of Fayetteville, Arkansas – a medical device company creating a platform of innovative products to improve minimally invasive abdominal surgery.
• Intelligent Observation of Miami, Florida developed a unique, proprietary technology platform based, hand hygiene tracking and alert system designed to reduce healthcare acquired infections in hospitals.
• Digital Twin Studios of Lafayette is a development company specializing in immersive and interactive training certification.

Get Started Medical was powered by Cox Business in partnership with Lafayette General Health and Opportunity Machine.