Georgia Dounis, DDS is a dentist and BIDS student who was the clinical lead of the MedDentAI Hexcite team. That team won the Judges’ Choice in the recent Hexcite Final Pitch event!
Hexcite is a medical software start-up generator program for entrepreneurs hosted by Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures. The Final Pitch event, held in early May 2025, was the culmination of 16 weeks of customer discovery, prototype design, and commercialization planning. Early-stage digital health teams, built from Johns Hopkins expertise, presented their 10-minute pitch with live judging from local innovation leaders. Each team includes a Johns Hopkins clinician and other professionals in design, technology, and business disciplines. Alex Zhu, the team’s Technical Lead, is also a BIDS student.
MedDentAI bridges the gap between medicine and dentistry with an AI-powered solution for faster, safer care and unlocks reimbursement. Dental clearance is required before critical medical procedures, yet most hospitals are not equipped to perform this clearance, resulting in a high cancellation rate, revenue loss, and delays of critical medical procedures. MedDentAI is integrated into medical workflows and allows medical teams to conduct quick dental assessments without a dentist. When integrated at clinical decision points, MedDentAI automates compliance, accelerates decision-making, and protects revenue. Using an intra-oral camera, images are taken and uploaded into the EMR, scored, and a report is generated and if the patient is not cleared, they are auto-referred to a dental partner for follow-up. The goal in Phase 1 of this project is to achieve 95% accuracy and ensure HIPAA and CMS alignment. In Phase 2 the plan is to validate the technology in 5-10 pilot sites, with expansion in Phase 3 to about 20 sites nationwide.
Dr. Dounis recently reached out to Dr. Paul Nagy to express how much the BIDS program has helped her with this project: “Your guidance and encouragement have been pivotal in helping me synthesize the diverse learning experiences I’ve gained through BIDS. They empowered me not only to initiate prototype development, but also to plan the first steps toward executing a pilot product for clinical trial deployment—an essential milestone in testing and validating our AI-driven solution. This journey has been nothing short of transformative, marking my evolution from clinical innovator to aspiring healthcare entrepreneur.”
Dr. Dounis continued, “With its strong foundation, exceptional faculty, and visionary leadership, BIDS is uniquely positioned to guide learners in transforming knowledge into deployment-ready AI solutions. I would be delighted to advocate for expanding this initiative to benefit future cohorts.”
Congratulations to Georgia, Alex, and the rest of the MedDentAI team!