San Francisco digital health accelerator Rock Health is kicking off its fifth program next week, and it has some unique startups in the mix.
Bound to be the most talked about is Augmedix, which is developing a healthcare app for Google Glass. Co-founders Ian Shakil and Pelu Tran haven’t said much about exactly what kind of app they’re working on, but it apparently will leverage Glass’s augmented reality and voice activation to help doctors keep their focus on patients. Augmedix has already raised $55,000 from 32 Upstart backers.
Another buzzworthy startup the accelerator selected is Smart Patients, an online patient community started by the founder of the Association of Cancer Online Resources, Gilles Frydman, and a former chief health strategist at Google, Roni Zeiger.
Another that caught my eye is CRIXlabs, which makes predictive nanoparticle software used by pharma to weed out unfavorable drug compounds early in the drug development process. There’s also Lift Labs, which makes mobile apps for people with Parkinson’s disease or other conditions that cause tremor. Interestingly, Lift Labs has also developed a spoon that uses “active cancelation of tremor” technology to make eating easier for those people.
A few of the companies are working in similar territory as lots of other digital health startups. Amplify Health, for example, builds population management tools for providers, and CancerIQ converts oncology data stored in unstructured enterprise data warehouses into research-quality data for secondary use.
Then there’s the handful of startup on the roster that seem to be laying low for now: Anapsis, which Rock says is a research platform and marketplace for scientific and statistical computing; Fluid, a tool to help diagnose the flu without a doctor’s visit; Sensentia, an “intelligent system for healthcare administration/operation” whose first product helps health insurers handle real-time inquiries from care providers; Spire, a wearable sensor that tracks physical and psychological fitness; and ThriveOn, which develops mobile mental health programs customized for individuals.
Since its last class, the accelerator has accumulated some new corporate partners. Boehringer Ingelheim and Ogilvy Public Relations join GE, Kaiser Permanente, Mayo Clinic, Nike, QualcommLife, UnitedHealth Group and others as partners.
