President Obama Recognizes CardioDiagnostics Among Top 5 Startups

Ziad Sankari, founder of the San Francisco-based CardioDiagnostics, will be a guest speaker today at the White House in Washington D.C. President Barack Obama’s Administration selected CardioDiagnostics among the top 5 US-led global startups that have created innovative solutions to global challenges: poverty, climate change, extremism, access to education and healthcare, etc.

The event will host different entrepreneurs from around the world to highlight their impact and achievements. It also aims to impress upon governments, investors, organizations and business leaders the fact that the world’s brightest entrepreneurs still require more support. President Obama will also recognize the Spark Global Entrepreneurship coalition’s role in advancing entrepreneurship.

From Lebanon, Sankari’s startup CardioDiagnostics has created LifeSense, a wearable device equipped with a heart rate monitor. This device detects abnormalities in patients’ hear rate and alerts the hospital or physician in case of emergency. Thanks to an integrated GPS tracking system, LifeSense leads medical teams to the patient directly. The product and its associated services are available in Lebanon and the US.

Sankari’s idea won first place at the 2011 Global Innovation through Science and Technology (GIST) Tech-I competition. Through GIST, a US Department of State funded initiative, he received his first round of seed funding and honed his negotiation and pitching skills, growing CardioDiagnostics into an enterprise with 40 employees.

The 4 other speakers include entrepreneurs who have also benefited from the Spark Global Entrepreneurship program:

  • Felipe del Campo (US), founder of FGC Plasma Solutions, works on reducing emissions of jet engines and industrial gas turbines and decreasing their fuel consumption by 10% whit a plasma-assisted injector he developed.
  • Jimena Flórez (Colombia) has developed Crispy Fruit, a women’s fair trade agribusiness that designs and develops healthy and nutritious natural products in response to consumer’s demand for a balanced diet.
  • Adepeju Jaiyeoba (Nigeria) developed Mothers Delivery Kits that teaches behavioral changes in healthcare and delivers lifesaving supplies at childbirth to end maternal and child mortality from unhygienic and unsafe deliveries.
  • Aazia Mickens-Dessaso (USA) cofounded FreePing, a software company that provides free streams of utility information to prepaid mobile phone subscribers in emerging markets.
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