A local student is receiving global attention for their system created to fill in the gaps with Parkinson’s care.

Bronwyn Bridges, the CEO and co-founder of PragmaClin and a student at Memorial University, has received numerous awards for their PRIMS operating system—most recently placing second in the Canadian competition for the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards.

PRIMS was developed by Bridges and Gord Genge, a Parkinson’s patient himself. When they sat down during COVID to look at filling gaps, Genge spoke of his own diagnosis. Bridges says with the incredible burden the health care system is under, there is a lack of specialists. That leads to struggles with follow-up appointments, which they set out to address with a remote patient monitoring system.

The system runs through a full clinical assessment that would normally be done in office by a specialist and gives a score based on motor and non-motor tests. Bridges says it then produces a “report card” of how an individual is progressing that can be viewed by a clinician to possibly adjust medication.

With her second place finish, Bridges advances to the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards to represent Canada in 2023, something she refers to as a “whirlwind.”