A health IT firm won the day in a city that is better known for its pharma and medical device companies.
Diagnotes was awarded $25,000 in the BioCrossroads New Venture Competition Monday night in Indianapolis.
The firm created the On Call program to connect hospital staff with doctors who are on duty but not at the hospital. Their system allows doctors to view medical records on a smartphone and transmit any new treatment instructions to the patient’s medical record.
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The data is not stored on the phone or anywhere in the Diagnotes system. The service simply provides the connection between the doctor and the information.
A health system in Indianapolis wanted to use the service in a pilot program and paid for a security audit for the startup company.
David B. Wortman is the CEO of Diagnotes. He said it was gratifying to see a health IT company win.
“We have used technology to transform other industries — manufacturing, financial services,” he said. “It’s now time for healthcare.”
Diagnotes also will be able to work with the Indiana Seed Fund II investment team to do business planning.
Algaeon Inc, industrial-scale microalgae cultivation technology, won second place and BioRegeneration Technologies, biomaterial therapies for regeneration of injured tissues, won third.
Krieg DeVault sponsored this first competition. Greg Coy, chair of the law firm’s life sciences practice, said that his initial impulse to support the event was networking with startup companies.
“We wanted to support BioCrossroads and get to know the new tech companies that are growing in Indianapolis,” he said.
Matt Hall, who organized the competition for BioCrossroads, said there were more than 30 applicants for the program.
The event also included a pre-venture prize of $10,000 for an early stage company. Three firms pitched to the judges and they couldn’t pick just one winner.
“Because both teams were so strong, we decided to award $10,000 to both NERx BioSciences and Sophia Therapeutics,” Hall said.
The biotech firm is working on targeted treatments for cancer that identifies a particular protein and DNA interaction. The other team is developing new treatments for neuropathic pain.
