Omedus, an Omaha-based startup building advanced technology solutions for medical and military uses, will be an exhibitor at the Consumer Electronic Show (CES 2026) in Las Vegas from Jan. 6-9. Founder and CEO Jessica Queen said the progress of her company and its Triage360 product is the result of consistent networking and community support in Nebraska.
CES is a tech trade show produced by the Consumer Technology Association. According to the CES 2025 Attendance Audit Summary, more than 142,000 attendees and 305 Fortune 500 Companies were present at the event last year. About 40% of the total audience were international attendees and over 4,500 exhibitors showcased their technology and innovations.
Queen said the origins for Omedus’ Triage360 solution came from her experience as a nurse practitioner and witnessing what she believed to be preventable deaths during the COVID pandemic. She said she wanted to improve the process of monitoring patients and determining their priority order for receiving medical treatment.
Omedus’ team has developed its original StatPatch product into a full system of hardware and software, Queen said. The Triage360 system collects vitals and observer input, incorporates data into an algorithm and conveys the results of a wearer’s condition with a change of color. Vitals are collected via an adhesive patch applied to the patient’s skin.
“It’s designed to create an autonomous triage system,” Queen said. “Even a non-medical person could apply this to an injured person and understand maybe what level they are just from the vitals it’s measuring.”
Although experienced in health care, Queen said she was unfamiliar with the world of startups when she started her entrepreneurial journey circa 2023. She described her initial interactions in the Nebraska ecosystem as helpful but also a bit of a learning curve.
“When I first walked into a 1 Million Cups, I was super confused,” Queen said. “I listened to this founder pitch, and they were talking about VC and TAM. And I was like, ‘What is this language … this completely foreign language?’”
Queen kept showing up and said she benefited from the conversations and connections she made with local founders, entrepreneurs, investors and resource providers. Names she mentioned include MOVE Venture Capital, Nebraska Innovation Labs, the Nebraska Business Development Center and NUtech Ventures.
Nick Alder of NUtech Ventures said he met Queen before his time at the university tech transfer and commercialization office. Moving into his role, he said he watched Queen move forward from “early-stage validation” to her exploring the “dual use” of her solution into other industries.
Queen said she followed up on the different leads presented to her, which led to military contacts, contractors and conferences. By applying and participating in the opportunities available, she said she learned about a variety of pathways to scale her company.
Milestone moments for Queen:
- Became a semifinalist in the Get Started Omaha Pitch Competition during Startup Omaha Week in 2023. At the time, the company went by RESPI.
- Awarded the Nebraska Innovation Fund Prototype Grant in 2024 through the Business Innovation Act.
- Named a member of the 2024 class of “40 Under 40” winners by Midlands Business Journal.
- Earned the title of People’s Choice Winner during the 2024 Silicon Prairie Startup Week Pitch Competition.
- Participated in the first cohort of Innosphere’s Life Science Incubator in 2024 with the support of NUtech Ventures. Queen said she received her first angel investor as an outcome of the program.
- Accepted into the 2025 Pipeline Fellowship program.
- Published in the National Defense Industrial Association’s magazine National Defense. The interview — which addressed Queen’s efforts to potentially get the Triage360 to Ukraine — occurred during her time at the 2025 Emerging Technologies for Defense Conference and Exhibition in Washington, D.C.
“We have not been a part of a ‘formal’ military exercise yet as we have not had functional equipment, but we will next year,” Queen said. “We have been speaking with Ukrainians since January 2025 about bringing devices to the warfront hospitals.”
Queen said she has faced setbacks, too — rejections, staffing changes and the struggle to find the right connections in the defense and medical industries.
Despite her busy schedule and growing recognition, Queen makes time to help the startup community that welcomed her. She currently serves as a co-organizer for 1 Million Cups Omaha.
“When you’re going through life, your family is often your advisers,” Queen said. “1 Million Cups has become my entrepreneurial family and support system for this journey.”
Alder said Queen’s experience makes her a valuable external partner to assist university teams building their own ventures.
NUtech Venture runs a Lab 2 Launch series that pairs entrepreneurial mentors with mentees. Alder said Queen has been an active adviser for participants — many of whom are graduates of I-Corps programming. Omedus sponsored the recent Lab 2 Launch in November.
Looking into 2026, Queen said Omedus is seeking to expand its team, earn FDA approval, determine a manufacturer to work with and raise investments for its ongoing seed round. She added that the company plans to give a demonstration of functional hardware at a joint exercise with Germany, Poland and the U.S. Army in May.
But next up: CES.
“Shark Tank will be there,” Queen said. “We for sure will be locking that down as soon as we get there.”
If you are interested in attending CES, Queen has provided the following code to get a $149 discount on tickets: ECCW3VDs
