The Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF) announced that OnSight Medical, an AI-based company specializing in cardiac ultrasound imaging, has won the TCT 2020 Shark Tank Innovation Competition which took place during the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT), the world’s premier educational meeting specializing in interventional cardiovascular medicine. The winner was also presented with the Jon DeHaan Foundation Award for Interventional Innovation.

“We are honored to name OnSight as this year’s TCT Shark Tank Innovation Competition winner for their AI-based software for cardiac ultrasound guidance, detection, and analysis,” says Juan F. Granada, MD, president and chief executive officer of the Cardiovascular Research Foundation, the sponsor of TCT. “OnSight has great potential to enhance and expand access to cardiac ultrasound to underserved populations all over the world.”

Cardiac ultrasound, a non-invasive imaging modality used to look at the structure and function of the heart, is typically used to help investigate symptoms and assess heart conditions. The test is usually performed by a specially trained technologist, called a sonographer, and interpreted by a cardiologist trained in reading heart ultrasounds. Using proprietary AI technology, OnSight Medical’s software provides real-time, expert level scans with high-quality 4D images, allowing for patients to get these scans in places with limited access to hospitals or specialists such as rural areas, underserved regions, and underdeveloped countries.

Now in its seventh year, the TCT Shark Tank Innovation Competition was created to highlight the most innovative device concepts and technological developments with the potential to disrupt the cardiovascular field and dramatically change how patients are treated. Six companies were chosen to present their technologies among a distinguished panel of multidisciplinary experts and judged on the following criteria: unmet clinical need, technology differentiation, IP position/viability, biological proof of concept, regulatory pathway, and commercialization potential.

For the third year in a row, the TCT Shark Tank Innovation Competition partnered with the Jon DeHaan Foundation to provide a $200,000 award given to the winner. The Jon DeHaan Foundation is dedicated to supporting those working to advance cardiac medicine and provides grants and awards to individuals and companies who focus on innovative developments in cardiovascular medicine, including research, prevention, diagnosis, treatment or rehabilitation.

“CRF is truly grateful to the Jon DeHaan Foundation for their continued support of pioneers in the field dedicated to developing new treatments for heart and vascular disease,” adds Granada.

“The DeHaan Foundation remains committed to its primary mission of supporting cardiovascular disease innovation,” says Robert Schwartz, MD, president of the Jon DeHaan Foundation. “The partnership with the Cardiovascular Research Foundation and TCT is an ideal collaboration to further this goal. We are pleased to continue these efforts with the Shark Tank sessions at TCT Connect.”

For more information, visit CRF and the TCT Connect.