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The #EnginEarGuys Look Back at 2018’s Most Memorable Moments

The last few years have been kind to us at PhotoniCare, but no year has given us the ability to grow more than 2018 did. Here is a recap of some of our most memorable moments from this past year:

• We won first place in the 2018 SPIE Startup Challenge. We started the year with a win at the 2018 SPIE Startup Challenge in San Francisco, CA. The SPIE Startup Challenge is held annually at Photonics West, the world’s most comprehensive technical conference and exhibition spanning biophotonics for brain research and healthcare, lasers for research and advanced manufacturing, sensors and camera systems, imagining and displays, communications and optoelectronics, plus the core optical components that enable many of today’s consumer products. PhotoniCare competed in the Biophotonics and point of care track, consisting of 10 startups from across the world. Ryan Shelton, co-founder and CEO, pitched at the presentation. As winner of the best pitch, PhotoniCare was awarded with a $10,000 cash prize in addition to a week-long entrepreneur bootcamp training, numerous promotion opportunities, and reimbursement for travel expenses.
• We competed in the HealthSpark 2018 Barracuda Bowl. Our year of achievements started out with a bang at the Barracuda Bowl in Texas. Presented by HealthSpark, the Barracuda Bowl was part of the South by Southwest Conference and consisted of fifteen of the most promising startups in healthtech. We had the privilege of being one of those coveted fifteen spots and had the opportunity to really showcase our company and product. We certainly attracted plenty of notice and took home the “Company of Choice” award by the TMC Innovation Institute.
• We received honors at the Angel Capital Association in Boston. About a month later, we were recognized as part of the Luis Villalobos Award by the Angel Capital Association. Villalobos, was known for his appreciation of ingenuity and was always looking for cutting edge companies to invest in. After his passing, the Luis Villalobos Awards honored his namesake by recognizing the most ingenious and innovative ideas. This year, we were selected as one of the four finalists across the country. It was an incredible honor and was proof of the hard work that our whole team had put in to our technology and our company. Thank you to VisionTech Partners for the humbling nomination!
• We received a clinical research grant from the National Institutes of Health. In May, we received some exciting news! The National Institutes of Health awarded us a $2.1M award through the Phase II-b Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. With this additional funding from the National Institute of Deafness and Communication Disorders, we hope to continue to build and expand on our clinical trials to advance the TOMi Scope [OtoSight Middle Ear Scope] even further.
• We were selected by MedTech Innovator for 2018 Showcase and Accelerator. 2018 continued to get better for us as we were chosen as a Top 50 startup company by MedTech Innovator from over 700 applicants. We participated in a four-month program that paired us with representatives from MedTech Innovator’s corporate partners, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the U.S. Military. We concluded the program at the MedTech Conference in Philadelphia.
• We had an incredibly successful MedTech Conference. Continuing our trend of having a strong 2018, we were the recipients of two awards that recognize promising new startups. The first of these was the Execution Award –  presented jointly by AdvaMed Accel and MedTech Innovator, this award recognized strong leadership teams with next-generation innovations. The second, The Virginia Shimer Rybski Memorial Award, was created to encourage the enthusiastic pursuit of business excellence in the medical technology industry. This award, presented each year during the association’s annual meeting to a single company, was created and named after the former President and CEO of Regenesis Biomedical. The winning company each year receives a sizable grant, a cash prize to be applied toward expenses required to commercialize the product and a one-year membership with AdvaMed.
• PhotoniCare exhibits at AAO and AAP.
  Four members of the PhotoniCare team took to the exhibition halls this fall as they attended and exhibited at the American Academy of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery Annual Meeting and OTO Experience in Atlanta, Georgia and at the American Academy of Pediatrics Experience National Conference & Exhibition in Orlando, Florida. The team demonstrated the TOMi Scope [OtoSight Middle Ear Scope] to clinicians from around the world, made some great contacts, and look forward to participating in these valuable events again in 2019.

Yes, a pretty special year for us, and if 2018 is any indication of our future success, we can’t wait to dig into 2019 and beyond! 

• PhotoniCare