130 submissions received; 19 teams complete 6-month research

Cataract lens simulation clinic wins top prize

Key officials and presenters pose for a group photo at the Mustard Seed Innovation Center's 2026 Demo Day 6, held Monday afternoon at Omnibus Park on the Catholic University of Korea's Sungui Campus. [Seoul St. Mary's Hospital]
Key officials and presenters pose for a group photo at the Mustard Seed Innovation Center's 2026 Demo Day 6, held Monday afternoon at Omnibus Park on the Catholic University of Korea's Sungui Campus. [Seoul St. Mary's Hospital]

The Mustard Seed Innovation Center at Catholic University of Korea's Seoul St. Mary's Hospital unveiled nine innovative ideas sourced from the medical field.

The center, jointly operated by the Catholic Foundation and Seoul St. Mary's Hospital, announced Tuesday that it held its 2026 Demo Day 6 on Monday at the Convention Hall of Omnibus Park on the Catholic University of Korea's Sungui Campus.

Since opening in February 2021, the center has held an annual innovation and startup idea competition to identify solutions to problems encountered in clinical settings. This year, 130 ideas were submitted, and 19 teams were selected as the sixth cohort of future committee members.

Submissions this year rose roughly 67 percent from the previous year, marking the highest total since the competition launched. The selected teams spent about six months from March refining their ideas through expert mentoring, tailored education and research funding. Each team received up to 12 million won ($8,970) in support.

At Monday's event, nine teams that had advanced through a multi-stage selection process presented projects spanning medical devices, digital healthcare and AI. The participating teams showcased technologies and services designed to address inconveniences and unmet needs they had encountered firsthand in clinical settings.

The grand prize, worth 5 million won, went to the Cheonrijan team from Yeouido St. Mary's Hospital for its project developing a pre-cataract surgery clinic where patients can experience various types of multifocal intraocular lenses.

The excellence award, worth 3 million won, went to the Jigeumi Bakkul Time team from Seoul St. Mary's Hospital. The merit award, worth 2 million won, was shared by three teams: the Hemosignal team from Seoul St. Mary's Hospital, the Omniguard team from the Catholic University of Korea College of Nursing, and the ReCOUGHvery team from Yeouido St. Mary's Hospital. The remaining four teams each received an encouragement award worth 1 million won.

The exhibition space was also expanded this year. Booths previously confined to one side of the convention hall were extended into the lobbies on both sides of the building, allowing participating teams to present prototypes and demonstration materials directly to visitors. A separate poster exhibition area introduced the ideas of all 19 teams in the sixth cohort.

The center plans to continue supporting outstanding projects so they can be applied in actual clinical settings. It will facilitate connections with relevant institutions and departments, and provide technology development and startup linkage programs to teams with strong commercialization potential.

Starting this year, the center has also been running a separate commercialization track alongside its existing idea competition. In January, it selected 11 teams from the third through fifth cohorts and launched a commercialization process offering support for corporate matching, prototype development and technology transfer.

Lee Gyeong-sang, a bishop and standing director of the Catholic Foundation, said the center "has grown into a hub of innovation that nurtures small ideas into tangible technologies and products and connects them to clinical settings and the healthcare industry." He added that he hoped the passion and drive shown by the sixth cohort would "bear meaningful fruit in each institution's clinical environment, not end with Tuesday's presentations."

Meanwhile, the Mustard Seed Innovation Center brought 14 teams to KHF 2026, the Korea International Hospital and Health Tech Fair, held at COEX in Seoul in August, where they presented medical and digital healthcare solutions. The teams showcased clinically inspired technologies including an AI-based emergency room triage prediction solution, an automated arterial blood collection system and a smart patient transport solution.


woo@heraldcorp.com