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Toronto, ON-based Enhanced Medical Nutrition Inc. (EMN) received $100,000 in funding for a project titled Evidence-based Medical Food for Patients Undergoing Orthopedic Surgery.
We spoke to CEO Eric Zimmerman to find out more about the company and its project.
Q: Please explain what your company does and how your products are improving the food industry.
A: Enhanced Medical Nutrition (EMN) develops medical food products to help patients prepare better and recover faster from surgery and critical illness. The company has developed an evidence-based nutrition program, ENROUTE, designed to improve clinical outcomes for patients undergoing surgery. EMN leverages patented ingredient technologies to offer ready-to-mix, easy-to-follow products that preserve muscle mass, support bone health, enhance immune function, and promote wound healing.
EMN is part of an important shift in healthcare, using food-as-medicine to build a new frontier in wellness and treatment options. Medical and functional foods offer patients, under the supervision of their physician, a means to proactively manage their health using clinically validated and natural food sources.
Q: What is your company’s mission?
A: Building better outcomes through innovative, evidence-based nutrition.
Q: Why did you apply for this funding and how will you use it?
A: EMN’s application was focused on further exploring and validating how food-as-medicine positively impacts patient outcomes. Acknowledging the pivotal role of nutrition in surgical recovery, EMN will use this funding to investigate the impact of our medical food products on patients undergoing orthopaedic surgery. The team will work closely with scientists and medical professionals to evaluate patients’ functional movement before and after surgery, using markerless motion capture gait analysis technology. The project will help determine how EMN’s products influence surgical patients’ movement and function after their procedure. Results from this project hold strong potential to revolutionize conventional surgical preparation and recovery practices, redefining how food can optimize clinical outcomes. Ultimately the goal is to share these insights with medical professionals.
Q: What excites you most about working in this area of the food industry?
A: The opportunity to contribute to transformative changes in healthcare using nutrition. Supporting patients and working to improve surgical outcomes is incredibly fulfilling and underscores the power of innovative solutions at the intersection of food and medicine.
Q: Why is collaboration so important for accelerating innovation in the food industry? Is it difficult to find good collaborating partners, and what would make the process easier?
A: Collaboration is exceedingly important for accelerating innovation in the food industry because it brings together diverse expertise, fosters knowledge-sharing, and facilitates the development of new solutions. While finding good collaborating partners in new areas of research can be challenging, once you establish clear communication channels and align on shared goals, you can create an open exchange of ideas that significantly ease the collaboration process.
Q: Please comment on the importance of public funding to help companies clear innovation hurdles and access leveraged funds.
A: Public funding is vital for companies to overcome innovation challenges, as demonstrated by CFIN’s Innovation Booster program. This funding allows for extensive early-stage research and development that addresses really important, unsolved questions. By providing a financial foundation, public funding enhances the credibility of SMEs to undertake this challenging work, attracts private investment, and fosters future collaboration. This is what will contribute to big advancements in personalized nutrition and improve human health through food.
Q: Looking ahead, what’s on the horizon for your company?
A: Looking ahead, our company envisions expanding the impact of ENROUTE beyond surgery to address nutritional needs in various medical contexts. We aim to innovate further and commercialize new products that impact more patients. We spend a lot of time thinking about healthy aging and longevity! We want to be at the forefront of food-as-medicine, aiming to improve patient outcomes across a broader spectrum of healthcare.
Q: What are your passions or hobbies outside of work?
A: Cooking-eating, boxing, reading.
Q: If you had to pick one person to make you a meal, who would you choose?