TMC PULSE

t m c » p u l s e | j u n e 2 0 1 5 23 his presentation: "Estrogen responsive neurons in the medial amygdala pre- vent stress-induced hypertension." Second place and $500 was awarded to Mandar Karhade for his project "circulating melanoma cells predicts recurrence in stage IV in melanoma patients," and the $250 third place was given to June Cao for his project: "Pharmacological hypothermia by TRPV1 agonism improves the long- term neurofunction and reduces thalamic neuron degeneration in ischemic stroke." "We were thrilled to have many talented presenters participate in the poster session and to provide a plat- form for future leaders in health care to share their work," said Robbins of the poster presentations. A highlight of the conference was the TMCx pitch session, during which 20 companies enrolled in the TMCx accelerator program were each given three minutes to pitch their business propositions to the audience and a panel of judges. "We've got 20 outstanding com- panies for all of you to see," said TMC COO William F. McKeon, who Between plenary sessions featuring leaders from the Texas Medical Center and beyond, smaller discussions focused on more specific topics, and the TMC-sponsored poster session and pitch event, Medical World Americas programming covered a wealth of health care issues and innovations. introduced the four judges—Lynda Chin, M.D., chief innovation officer for health affairs at The University of Texas System, Thomas DeSouza, managing director at Allegory Venture Partners, Eric Richardson, Ph.D., a bioengineer- ing lecturer at Rice University, and Farzad Soleimani, chief resident of emergency medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. "You will be voting on the People's Award," McKeon said to the audience, "which will select the favorite company for $500 and third place." The panel of judges chose first and second place winners. Balance diagnostics company iShoe won the audience favorite third place. Gauss Surgical, creators of the first FDA-approved real-time monitor for surgical blood loss, and Redox, which is working towards making Electronic Health Records easier to use, tied for second place, each winning $1,000. Adient Medical, which develops absorbable medical devices, won first place and $2,000. Overall, organizers deemed this year's conference a success. "We saw substantial progress over our inaugural year," said Michael Heckman, senior vice president of partnerships and event development at GHCVB. "We wanted to do a better job of delivering on what we think is the unique value proposition of Medical World Americas, which is cross-disci- plinary networking, from CEOs and hospital administrators to clinicians, researchers and students." This year, 2,319 people registered for the conference—a 15 percent increase over last year. Even beyond the quanti- tative growth, Heckman said he and the event organizers received positive feedback regarding the flow of the event, the speakers and the content of the sessions. "We noticed that folks stayed longer this year," he said. "We think that's a testament to not just the content but also the interactive things we had on the expo floor." The fact that Messe Dusseldorf chose Houston as the site of Medical World Americas is a testament to what the city has to offer in terms of playing host to major conferences, particularly related to medicine and health care. Heckman said he hopes this conference will open the door to more medical conferences in Houston. "They could have chosen any city in the United States to locate their version of MEDICA here in North America," said Heckman. "They chose Houston." Medical World Americas organizers have already identified multiple goals for the annual event, he added. One is to enhance and increase the number of ancillary and co-located events. Towards that end, he noted they are in talks with an international event that is considering partnering with the 2017 conference. "We also want to get to the point where there are new products that are highlighted on the expo floor," said Heckman. "For example, a company that has cutting-edge technology or a new product they want to announce at Medical World Americas. If we can raise the stature and the brand, if we can highlight Houston and the Texas Medical Center, and become a PR machine at the same time, we'd con- sider that a success."

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