The year 2014 has been absolutely deluged, in a good way, with health startups, particularly within the health IT space. From the seemingly ubiquitous data analytics companies looking to help hospitals to applying the shared-economy principal to hospital equipment to mining data from imaging, new ideas abound.
What follows are the ones that stood out to me, for being either clever and addressing an unmet need or for their execution and overarching goals. Undoubtedly, there are scores of others that probably warrant a mention, so apologies to those not included. It’s likely because I just don’t know enough, so keep the pitches coming.
1. Cohealo – Dozens of health startups proclaim to be taking the Uber approach the healthcare, or uberfying healthcare. Cohealo stands out for applying the cloud-based, shared-economy model in a tangible but unique way: providing software for hospital systems to better manage costly medical equipment and more efficiently manage resources. Few, if any, other companies are working in the space, and Cohealo says it’s poised to sign several major health systems. It’s already got Massachusetts-based Steward Health Care Network and its 12 hospitals on board. It’s hard to say how much exactly is wasted by hospitals in this area, but Cohealo CEO Mark Slaughter, who used to sell medical equipment to hospitals, notes that $100 billion in spent on medical equipment, much of which can be better spent and tracked.
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2. Omada Health – This San Francisco-based startup has its sites set on Type 2 diabetes, one of the major cost drivers in healthcare, and prevention through applying technology and incentives. While scores of startups exist in this realm, Omada, started in 2012 and led by CEO Sean Duffy, seems to be gaining traction: it’s raised nearly $30 million and has partnered with the likes of the California Healthcare Foundation. It’s flagship product, Prevent, has proven as effective as in-person behavioral health trainings, and it’s able to back it up with actual clinical results, meaning insurers might want to take a closer look if it aims to keep members healthier; Kaiser Permantne, Stanford Hospital and Blue Shield Louisiana are among early adopters, and getting insurers and health systems to pay for it helps the company separate itself from others. Omada has said it plans to take its approach beyond just diabetes and into other areas of chronic illnesses.
3. Care at Hand – Another Boston-based startup, Care at Hand is among the few looking to redefine the role of home care workers by applying mobile technology, and getting health systems to buy into the concept could prove to be a huge boon. The role of home care is only expected to increase, probably significantly, as hospitals hope to keep patients out of emergency rooms. In a pilot with four hospitals in Massachusetts, Care at Hand, started in 2013 and headed by CEO Andrey Ostrovsky, found that an investment of $30,000 in its mobile technology saved the hospitals $370,000 by freeing up physicians and nurses to care for those who most need it and deploying the more cost-efficient home care workers to patients, in their homes, for routine check-ins that can prevent a trip to the ER.
4. Oscar Health Insurance – health insurance companies rarely invoke the sexy startup status. Indeed, there’s only a handful of new health insurance companies trying to enter a market filled with long-established giants like Humana and Aetna and the like. But Oscar, based in New York City, is making a go of it, hoping to capitalize on the widely acknowledged consumer-driven shift occurring within health insurance. Insurance carriers and local HMOs who don’t embrace a more consumer-friendly approach, in place of the traditional employer group business, are likely to face a challenging, more demanding marketplace. Oscar has tried to position itself as exactly that, with the added bonus of being tech savvy and consumer oriented. It recently added some heft to that notion, promising to cover the cost of Misfit Wearables for members. National expansion plans are afoot, with California and Texas being eyed. If and when the startup, which has raised $174 million and was founded in May 2014, gets approval and adequate networks set up across the country, it could be in a good position to capture new members disaffected by the big insurers. It’s CEO is Joshua Kushner.
