Study STEM in Canada

Narrator: Meet Azadeh Dastmalchi. Azadeh began her study in Canada adventure in 2010 at the University of Ottawa. Since then, she completed her master's degree in biomedical engineering, became a Canadian citizen, and started her own company called Vital Tracer—a medical start-up that builds smart watches that measure blood pressure. We spoke to Azadeh to learn more about her journey and the start-up ecosystem in Canada.

On-screen text: EduCanada Asks: Why did you decide to study in Canada?

Azadeh Dastmalchi CEO Vital Tracer: It has a very strong history in STEM, like in insulin and telecommunications. And on the other hand, it's a multicultural country. It gives us—not only us, but our parents—peace of mind that we are in a safe country, studying, every single day.

On-screen text: EduCanada Asks: How did you get the idea to build the watch?

Azadeh Dastmalchi: The idea of the watch originally came from when my dad got high blood pressure and medical doctors asked him to take his measurements three times per day for a week, and he didn't like it at all. When I asked him the main issue, he said that it's hard to install and that the cuff, which inflates and deflates, he doesn't like it at all. So I find that OK, if we can build a technology like the watch, that would be the best solution.

Narrator: Azadeh’s solution was a smartwatch that uses optical sensors and artificial intelligence, powered by machine learning algorithms, to measure blood pressure. In recent years, Montreal has become an artificial intelligence hub for students, researchers and businesses. For Azadeh, Montreal was the perfect city to launch her start-up.

Azadeh Dastmalchi: I heard about lots of very good programs for entrepreneurship in Montreal, especially that they are more concentrated on A.I. I can say that since 2019 until now, we got around half a million dollars from Quebec government funds from the Ministry of Economy and Innovations, from Concordia D3, from IQ—which is Invest Quebec—and from Prompt. And these are all funds to support building our technology in terms of MVP—minimum viable product.

Going to the commercialization version, getting Health Canada’s approval and a bit of support for our clinical validation in hospitals.

Narrator: Entrepreneurship is a journey full of uncertainty and challenges. But despite all of the obstacles, Azadeh found her success in Canada.

Azadeh Dastmalchi: Canada’s government, during the pandemic, was super supportive for the SMEs—small and medium entrepreneurs—and for start-ups. Lots of support and subsidies for wages, funds, grants. And they helped us not only about the monetary, but in terms of mentoring, lots of free programs to make us move forward.