Health IT, Startups

Indiegogo campaign for online mhealth marketplace ties investor reward to William Osler

It’s fitting that a mobile health company selling point-of-care smartphone and wireless devices is rewarding […]

It’s fitting that a mobile health company selling point-of-care smartphone and wireless devices is rewarding investors in its Indiegogo campaign with a bag named after William Osler, the influential advocate of schooling med students at the patients’ bedside. The founders of Quantified Care view wireless digital health devices from pulse oxymeters and digital blood pressure monitors as a natural progression from the traditional doctor’s toolkit of manual stethoscopes and blood pressure cuffs.

The goal of the campaign is to raise money to launch an online marketplace. After a few days, the company had raised $6,890 — a little less than halfway toward their $15,000 goal.

Quantified Care’s physicians’ bag is filled with devices such as Welch Allyn’s iExaminer, Withings’ blood pressure monitor and wireless pulse oxymeters. The doctor’s bag named after Osler was already sold out when I checked the company’s Indiegogo pitch. But a smart looking smartphone holder was still available.

The co-founders of the company include Shiv Gaglani, who founded another DreamIt Health company — Osmosis; Mike Hoagland, the former clinical director for the Dr. Oz Show; and Mike Batista, the CEO. Batista and Gaglani also edit medgadget. Gaglani and Hoagland are pursuing MDs (or in Gaglani’s case,  an MD/MBA) and Batista is pursuing a PhD. Where do they fit it all in?

Quantified Care, a graduate of DreamIt Health Baltimore’s inaugural class, was originally named Smartphone Physical. That was also the name of the project its founders developed for TEDMED last year to demonstrate  how point-of-care devices could be used for physical exams and contrast them with the devices from which they evolved.

Although I can understand the usefulness of bringing together smartphone-enabled and wireless point-of-care devices in one online store, I’m not entirely convinced it will be able to effectively compete with larger online retail businesses when their interest catches up. It will be interesting to see how many of its online marketplace customers are non-medical staff and simply strong advocates of the Quantified Self trend.

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