Health IT, Startups

National Business Group on Health the latest to reference ‘Shark Tank’ in startup competition

The National Business Group on Health, a coalition of mega-corporations, today launched its Health Innovations Forum, which the Washington-based organization described as "a 'Shark Tank'-like initiative designed to help accelerate the adoption of effective health care technologies and solutions by large employers."

It’s official. When it comes to describing innovation in healthcare, “Shark Tank” is the new Uber.

For more than a year now, pundits have been describing supposedly disruptive technologies as the “Uber of healthcare” because they believe a startup has the potential to shake up the healthcare industry the way Uber has made taxi companies sweat. Check here, here, here and here for examples. Then click here, here, and here for arguments why an Uber won’t be disrupting this industry.

Now, the analogy is turning to “Shark Tank,” the hit ABC show where entrepreneurs get to pitch their ideas to a team of highly successful business moguls, in hopes of landing a big investment. Run a Google search on “shark tank healthcare” and get 1.67 million results.

You can now add another one to the list. The National Business Group on Health, a coalition of mega-corporations, today launched its Health Innovations Forum, which the Washington-based organization described as “a ‘Shark Tank’-like initiative designed to help accelerate the adoption of effective health care technologies and solutions by large employers.”

The NBGH is taking applications online through May 28 and will pick an unspecified number of promising companies to present at the July 14 Health Innovations Forum board meeting in Washington. Startups that impress the 13 board members will be given the opportunity to present before the larger Employer Council in August, with the hopes of landing a contract with one or more of the organization’s members.

“Even with healthcare reform fully underway, there is a need for innovative and disruptive solutions to transform the delivery system and improve the health of employees,” NBGH President and CEO Brian Marcotte said in a press release. “We created the Health Innovations Forum to evaluate startup companies that have developed innovative solutions to improve employee health, or enhance the efficiency, delivery or consumer experience within the healthcare system.”

It may be competitive, but don’t expect a “shark” like Mark Cuban to recommend the direct-to-consumer approach that has failed so often in healthcare. Don’t tell Cuban, but healthcare doesn’t work like any other industry in that the bulk of the costs fall not on the consumer, but a third party such as an insurer or, oh, I dunno, a large employer such as those that belong to the NBGH.

 

 

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