ENTrepreneur Faceoff
Tuesday’s competition puts a spotlight on teams presenting their early, not yet widely commercially available, innovations.
Mark your calendar for Tuesday, September 15, 5:00 - 7:00 pm (ET) at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown for the ENTrepreneur Faceoff and check out some innovative premarket products. The face-off allows entrepreneurs to go head-to-head with their top presentations and products within the otolaryngology specialty.
In its second year, the ENTrepreneur Faceoff is organized and brought to attendees due to the active participation and guidance of the AAO-HNS Medical Devices and Drugs Committee (MDDC).
“We are excited to have 25 teams presenting their innovations at booths, three of which have been preselected based on scoring by the MMDC members to pitch their ideas live to the audience,” said Ashley E. Kita, MD, Assistant Professor-in-Residence in the Department of Head and Neck Surgery at UCLA. She said the first hour of the faceoff event provides time for attendees to network and circulate to see the innovations presented at each of the booths. The second hour is reserved for live presentations from the top three teams.
The judging panelists, who represent both academia as well as industry, are: Alexander Brethaur, Senior Product Manager at Cook Medical in Bloomington, Indiana, Jina Ko, PhD, Assistant Professor of Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania, Matthew Maltese, PhD, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Pediatric Medical Device Consortium, and Katherine Reuther, PhD, Executive Director of the Penn Center for Health-Devices and Technology. 
The judging panel for the ENTrepreneur Faceoff: (from upper left and clockwise) Alexander Brethaur, Jina Ko, PhD, Katherine Reuther, PhD, and Matthew Maltese, PhD.
“The number of submissions has more than doubled compared to last year. Clearly there is a need for this type of event at the Annual Meeting. We see diverse representation of otolaryngologists at all levels, from trainees to experienced colleagues among applicants,” observed Anais Rameau, MD, Assistant Professor of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York. “It is really exciting to see so much enthusiasm for innovation among our peers, and we are grateful for the AAO-HNSF support in making this faceoff a recurring event.
In its second year, the committee made some adjustments to the program. “We removed the fireside chats to maximize time for networking. We think this is an excellent opportunity for innovators to interact with each other, mentors, and industry partners,” Dr. Rameau said.
