Team GloveLift wins 2025 Business Plan Competition with innovative medical device

Team GloveLift: Tim Lee, Romin Yun, Belinda Gao, and Quoc Tran.

An idea sparked by a moment of self-reflection has propelled Team GloveLift to first place in the 2025 Business Plan Competition, hosted by the Office of Experiential Education at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy.

Second-year Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) students Tim Lee, Romin Yun, Belinda Gao, and Quoc Tran earned the $5,000 top prize for their pitch: GloveLift, a glove-dispenser designed to reduce waste, contamination, and inefficiencies in clinical settings by releasing a clean pair of gloves through a simple, box-mounted mechanism.

For Lee, the idea behind GloveLift began well before he entered the pharmacy profession. After stepping away from a previous role in hospital healthcare, he was searching for a new path – one that could make use of what he’d learned and experienced. What began as a way to reconnect with that time eventually evolved into something much bigger.

“Now, I see that opportunities can open up to those who are willing to try.”

“The opportunity to have this idea heard really opened my perspective,” says Lee. “Now, I see that opportunities can open up to those who are willing to try.”

The finale took place on March 26, with six student teams presenting their pitches to a panel of judges: Nedzad Pojskic, Vice-President of Pharmacy Benefits Management at GreenShield and the Faculty’s 2025 Leader-in-Residence; Sousan Bagherpoor, CEO and Founder of Virtual POCT; and Jamie Stiff, Managing Director of Genesys Capital.

“Personally, I have no business background, so even just working on our preliminary pitch was a huge change for me,” says Tran. “Each time we learned that our team made it to the next round was such a thrill. To then hear our team announced as the winner during the Grand Finale was an unreal experience. I am still in disbelief that we won. This isn’t the first time that all of us worked together in a competition, but this is the first time that we won.”

The team is now focused on refining GloveLift’s design, securing a patent, and exploring next steps for development and potential business registration.

“I can assure our team that my portion will go toward efforts like securing the necessary patents and possibly registering as a business,” says Lee. Looking ahead, they envision GloveLift becoming an industry standard and expanding into new solutions that address other needs in healthcare.

In addition to advancing their idea, the team gained valuable insight into collaboration, confidence, and humility throughout the process.

“Learning and honing this skill is so important – not just for entrepreneurship, but also for pharmacy practice, where strong communication with peers and colleagues is essential.”

“This was the first time we had a chance to work on a long project in teams since starting the PharmD program, and it made me realize how much room I have to grow in terms of teamwork,” says Gao. “Learning and honing this skill is so important – not just for entrepreneurship, but also for pharmacy practice, where strong communication with peers and colleagues is essential.”

“It was a humbling experience,” says Yun. “At first, I was probably the most skeptical about our idea. But we each did our part exceptionally well, and in the end, we won. The judges saw potential where I didn’t, and it taught me to be more open to different perspectives. Most importantly, this was a special moment because the four of us – the first friends I made in the PharmD program – achieved it together. I’m incredibly proud of our team.”

Monica Gautam, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream and Pharmaceutical Industry Residency Program Coordinator, served as moderator of the finale and co-coordinator of the Management, Communications, and Collaboration course, for which the competition is a key requirement.

“It is incredibly rewarding to witness the remarkable growth in students’ confidence and business acumen over just a few months,” says Gautam.

“This year’s finalist teams demonstrated impressive creativity and strategic thinking in tackling significant healthcare challenges – some inspired by their own personal experiences,” she adds. “I’m excited that next year’s event will return to an in-person format, and I look forward to seeing the energy and innovation of the students come to life in front of a live audience.”

In addition to the $5,000 grand prize, Team GloveLift also received the inaugural OnPharm-United Scholarship for Entrepreneurship, which will now be awarded annually to the winners of the Business Plan Competition. The scholarship recognizes student-led innovation and entrepreneurial spirit in pharmacy.