StartUp Health is bringing in 12 new “healthcare transformers” to join its academy for health and wellness entrepreneurship — some of them with team members who have already made a name for themselves in the health tech industry.
StartUp Health comprises 22 companies but is on a mission to work with 1,000 over the next decade. Launched in 2011 by entrepreneurs Steve Krein and Unity Stoakes, and chaired by former Time Warner CEO Jerry Levin, it offers companies a structured, three-year program with workshops and peer groups, and takes no stake in the companies.
Here’s a rundown of the most recently selected participants:
Dave Chase (@chasedave) and Bassam Saliba, Avado Health: Chase founded Microsoft’s healthcare business and is a serial entrepreneur. Bassam is a serial technology entrepreneur. Together they created Avado, an EMR-neutral patient relationship portal with messaging, reminders, appointment scheduling and information sharing for patients and physicians.
Jonathon Feit (@jonathonfeit) and Christian Witt, Beyond Lucid Technologies: These two Carnegie Mellon University MBAs developed an electronic patient care record system built specifically for disaster management, which now has Dell and Microsoft as partners. Beyond Lucid was part of Rock Health’s 2011 class.
Rebecca Woodcock (@RebeccaWoodcock), CakeHealth: Another Rock Health graduate, CakeHealth lets healthcare consumers organize, categorize and manage all of their healthcare spending online for free.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
Alan Blaustein and Nancy Snyderman (@DrNancyNBCNEWS), CarePlanners: Blaustein was diagnosed with cancer in 2005; Snyderman was his doctor and is a longtime friend. After his recovery, they teamed up to create a team of care planners — nurses, social workers, Medicare experts, insurance specialists and others — along with a set of online tools to help patients navigate their healthcare experience. Blaustein is a lawyer, co-founder of OpenSky and a mentor at Blueprint Health. Snyderman is a surgeon and NBC’s chief medical editor.
Sherwin Sheik, CareLinx: Sheik, a former healthcare analyst, formed CareLinx around helping consumers and institutions find, screen, manage and pay caregivers who meet their needs and budget.
Steven Eisenberg (@drseisenberg), Chemotopia: As the founder of California Cancer Associates for Research and Excellence and Lyrical Life, which uses music as part of a patient’s healing process, Eisenberg is dedicated to making cancer suck less. His latest offering, Chemotopia, is a community aimed at helping patients prepare for chemotherapy treatment.
Mitesh Patel, Sachin Nanavati (@sachn23) and Derek Juang, Docphin: Making medical news and research easier to follow, organize and share is the goal of Docphin. It’s a Rock Health graduate and is already in 35 health systems across the country.
Eve Phillips (@evephillips), Empower Interactive: The flagship application for this company is Good Days Ahead, which teaches evidenced-based skills for managing stress, depression and anxiety. Phillips is a former member of investment teams at Amadeus Capital Partners, Vector Capital and Greylock Partners.
Derek Flanzraich (@thederek), Greatist: In a world filled with so much noise about health and fitness, this Harvard graduate’s startup wants to provide useful content to help people make better choices for their fitness, health and happiness.
Venkat Gullapalli (@gullapalli09), Medikly: Created by a physician, pharmaceutical marketer and serial entrepreneur, Medikly helps pharmaceutical brands communicate with healthcare providers, with customers including top 10 pharmaceutical companies. It’s part of the Blueprint Health program.
Eric Leven and Aditya Verma, Rip Road: Leven has worked for multiple startups including Mainspring, which was acquired by IBM, while Verma has helped AT&T Wireless launch text messaging and mobile Web in the U.S. Together they want to make patients more educated and involved in managing their health with a mobile toolbox.
Rosina Samadani (@rosinasam), Truth on Call: Developed by Samadani and strategic consulting firm Capella Advisors, Truth on Call makes physicians available to industry members via text for basic research purposes. Samadani is the founder of Capella and a blogger for Huffington Post.
