THE University of Melbourne will provide pre-seed investment to support two female-founded healthcare startups - at-home pregnancy monitoring startup Kali Healthcare, and clinical trial participant recruitment startup Torch Recruit, BioSpectrum has reported.
Kali Healthcare, co-founded by the University of Melbourne A/Prof Fiona Brownfoot, has developed a small wearable device and sensor patch that accurately picks up the baby's heart rate, improving the ease and access to pregnancy monitoring for regional patients.
Tragically, over 2,000 Australian families are impacted by stillbirth each year, claiming the lives of one in every 130 pregnancies.
Kali Healthcare's other co-founders Dr Emerson Keenan and Prof Marimuthu Palaniswami said that with a $500k pre-seed investment from the University of Melbourne and ongoing support from development partners, the fetal heart rate monitoring technology will be into the pivotal clinical trial phase by next year.
The second startup, a new clinical tool to help doctors automatically identify eligible patients for clinical trials and improve clinical trial participant diversity has been created by Torch Recruit, founded by the University of Melbourne A/Prof Jo-Anne Manski-Nankervis.
Western Health and the University have committed $250k each in pre-seed investment funding for business development and expansion of the network of general practices working with Torch Recruit.
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