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t m c » p u l s e | o c t o b e r 2 0 1 5 9 critical to the success of the program. On Demo Day, an advisor introduced each company before they plunged into their final pitch. "My involvement as an advisor has been very fruitful," said Alexander Izaguirre, Ph.D., director of special projects at Baylor College of Medicine and a TMCx advisor. "I take a very visionary type of approach to tech- nology, where I'm not as interested in what people can do today as where they can go tomorrow. In working with these companies, I've gotten to see what some of them can do. I wouldn't be surprised if many of them go on to succeed and develop themselves into big players in the industry." A distinctively diverse cohort— ranging from early to late stage in terms of growth, and hailing from Houston, San Fransisco, Israel, Germany and everywhere in between— the 68 individuals in TMCx's first class fell into one of three categories: consumer-facing enterprises, those developing regulated medical devices and companies cultivating enterprise- level software. "Many of the Texas-based com- panies were developed out of Texas Medical Center institutions," Robbins said. "That's the goal, of course— to help young students and young faculty members develop new com- panies that can be successful and, ultimately, stay here in Texas. "One of our companies, BrainCheck, is an outgrowth of Baylor College of Medicine," he added. "Maybe one day we'll all have to check in with an iPad and see if we're fit to perform surgery or operate heavy machinery. On the sports field, BrainCheck has a very clever way to assess brain functioning." According to their Chief Executive Officer, Yael Katz, Ph.D., BrainCheck— a company developing a mobile, inter- active test for cognitive health issues such as concussions and dementia— has already breached several target demographics. Their technology is in use in seven schools, two emergency rooms, four clinics and two senior centers. For her, the consumer market is close at hand. "Now we actually have a product, so it's an actual, tangible device that peo- ple can use," said Katz. "We invested a lot in the technology, so it's scalable, HIPAA compliant, fully secured and really nicely designed. We've tested about 1,000 people so far and have integrated all of that amazing feedback into the product itself." Similar success stories weren't hard to find. On Demo Day, pitches that painted a portrait of rapid progress and sustained development were common. The first company to present, Gauss Surgical, demonstrated the huge strides taken by many of the founders. "We accept that bleeding is a function of what we do in surgery, and I think part of innovation is ques- tioning whether or not that's a reality," said Alan B. Lumsden, M.D., medical director of the Houston Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center, in his advisor introduction. "Really, bleed- ing is either a function of disease, bad surgery or bad technology. At the end of the day, blood loss is a negotiation between the surgeon and the anesthe- siologist. For somebody in my position to effect change, I have to be able to measure that."