Download MedCity’s Startup Index for November
I hate it when people call ideas or businesses “sexy.” People are sexy, ideas and inanimate objects are not.
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When I hear a person use that term to describe a startup company, I think, “Shallow. Short attention span. Not interested in solving real problems.”
A weak idea delivered via a slick pitch almost always beats a great idea presented by a poor public speaker. However, I am enough of an idealist to want that NOT to be true.
That is why I talk about and write about companies working on the hard, messy, unglamorous problems in healthcare. This is why I get excited about companies working on hospice care and underserved populations and pain relief.
Here are three of the companies in this month’s startup report that fit those criteria. These entrepreneurs are working on problems that affect the Average Janes and Joes of the world. The customers of these companies are not quantified selfers or people with the money to travel to the best doctors in the world.
Bernard Health – This company is opening store fronts and putting advisers in hospitals to help people figure out health insurance. “It used to be that you could do your own taxes, but now people hire experts. The same thing is happening to health insurance,” said Alex Tolbert, the founder of Bernard Health.
Konnact Bloom – This company is making it easy for hospice caregivers to stay in the digital communication loop. “It helps productivity because the provider can now focus on patient care. The chores of clinical documentation are automated and transferable to an EMR system,” the company’s spokesman Rajeev Krishnan said, adding that its pilot with the three hospice organizations showed an increase in productivity of 20 percent to 30 percent.
IMYourDoc – This app is designed for people with chronic conditions. The idea is to reduce emergency room visits by addressing questions about symptoms and medication side effects through text messages.
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“As physicians, they saw the need for less disruptive communication because they have a high usage patient population with chronic kidney condition [concerns],” said COO Dana Allison. “The beauty of mobile technology is it’s really a value proposition for healthcare.”
Download MedCity’s Startup Index for November
[Goofy picture from flickr user Marcus Nelson]
