2008 Woodie Awards
Software that saves lives
Student venture seeks to monitor heart attack recovery
Rebecca Jacobson
Issue date: 4/11/06 Section: Features
Although some students may take EN 90: "Managerial Decision Making" to lighten their course load, the class transformed one former international relations concentrator, Simon Salgado '07, into a serial entrepreneur. After taking a year off to develop a tech company, Salgado is back at Brown and embarking on a new venture - vests.
Salgado is the chief executive officer of DigiTRx, a company designing software that will monitor and interpret the vital signs of patients who have suffered heart attacks. DigiTRx's software will analyze blood pressure, heart rate and electrocardiogram readings, allowing doctors to monitor patients wearing a medical vest from a remote location. The vest, which monitors over 40 vital signs, has already been developed by a California company, VivoMetrics, but Salgado's group is tailoring it to patients recovering from heart attacks.
The company formed as part of EN 194, Sec. 7: "Entrepreneurship II" this semester and is now one of six semifinalists in the Rhode Island Business Plan Competition, even though it is not yet incorporated. Getting this far in the competition was "a big benchmark," Salgado said. He added that DigiTRx also hopes to win the Entrepreneurship Program Business Plan Competition on April 30. The company was one of five winners of EP's Elevator Pitch Competition last semester.
"It's very exciting, especially now having a visible product," Salgado said. "The culmination will be whether or not we win Rhode Island or Brown EP, but along the way it's been lots of smaller benchmarks."
At the beginning of last semester in EN 193: "Entrepreneurship I," class members were divided into groups and presented with either a specific technology or a problem in a certain industry to develop into a viable business idea. Salgado's group, which includes Alex Leyzer '06 and Vivian Fong '06 as co-directors of marketing, Kimberly King '06 as chief financial officer and Chipalo Street '06 and Mike Shim '07 as the software engineering team, was approached by Peter Tilkemeier, associate professor of medicine and director of cardiac rehabilitation at Miriam Hospital. Tilkemeier explained that exercise programs intended to monitor patients recovering from heart attacks are often inaccessible or inconvenient, making cardiac rehabilitation challenging. Salgado's group began searching for a solution to Miriam Hospital's problem.
Salgado is the chief executive officer of DigiTRx, a company designing software that will monitor and interpret the vital signs of patients who have suffered heart attacks. DigiTRx's software will analyze blood pressure, heart rate and electrocardiogram readings, allowing doctors to monitor patients wearing a medical vest from a remote location. The vest, which monitors over 40 vital signs, has already been developed by a California company, VivoMetrics, but Salgado's group is tailoring it to patients recovering from heart attacks.
The company formed as part of EN 194, Sec. 7: "Entrepreneurship II" this semester and is now one of six semifinalists in the Rhode Island Business Plan Competition, even though it is not yet incorporated. Getting this far in the competition was "a big benchmark," Salgado said. He added that DigiTRx also hopes to win the Entrepreneurship Program Business Plan Competition on April 30. The company was one of five winners of EP's Elevator Pitch Competition last semester.
"It's very exciting, especially now having a visible product," Salgado said. "The culmination will be whether or not we win Rhode Island or Brown EP, but along the way it's been lots of smaller benchmarks."
At the beginning of last semester in EN 193: "Entrepreneurship I," class members were divided into groups and presented with either a specific technology or a problem in a certain industry to develop into a viable business idea. Salgado's group, which includes Alex Leyzer '06 and Vivian Fong '06 as co-directors of marketing, Kimberly King '06 as chief financial officer and Chipalo Street '06 and Mike Shim '07 as the software engineering team, was approached by Peter Tilkemeier, associate professor of medicine and director of cardiac rehabilitation at Miriam Hospital. Tilkemeier explained that exercise programs intended to monitor patients recovering from heart attacks are often inaccessible or inconvenient, making cardiac rehabilitation challenging. Salgado's group began searching for a solution to Miriam Hospital's problem.