Note: This post has been updated from an earlier version.
We are rapidly approaching MedCity INVEST Twin Cities, a satellite conference to the annual healthcare and life science investment event in Chicago in partnership with Medical Alley. The focus will be on healthcare innovation in digital health. Like MedCity INVEST, early stage companies will square off in the Pitch Perfect contest. Here’s a preview of the healthcare startups that will take part in the October 12 event .
Carrot Health Founded in 2014 by CEO Kurt Waltenbaugh, the company developed a cloud-based healthcare business and marketing intelligence tool. It provides consumer insights aimed at helping payers and health systems identify growth and population health opportunities. There are three core parts to the business: Consumer data, analytics using validated predictive models that forecast health outcomes based on consumer behavior and healthcare business intelligence.
Flywheel has zeroed in on the collaboration needs of pharma and biotech research and development along with academic research markets. The company notes in its summary that most researchers have tried and failed to reproduce another scientists’ experiments and more than half have failed to reproduce their own experiments. So they need a cloud-based research platform to support collaboration, ensure reproducible results, create reusable data sets and
algorithms. The Software as a Service business led by serial entrepreneur Troy Kopischke has a subscription-based pricing model targeting research labs and clinical trials. It will initially focus on neuroimaging with plans to expand strategically into other markets on a systematic basis.
Attend MedCity INVEST Twin Cities to hear pitches from these healthcare startups. Use promo code MCNPOST to save $50. Register Now.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
HighFive Health seeks to improve medication management for providers and payers. Its tools provide a single, ongoing medication-use narrative for providers in the patient’s community of care to reduce medication errors, decrease costs and increase revenue, per patient. The company can aggregate data from providers in the community, do prescriptive analytics, and help pharmacies provide more efficient, centralized services. It is currently working with the Indiana health information exchange, HealthLINC. Indiana University Health and other providers in the state are using the HighFive platform. To date, more than 150,000 patients are in its system. CEO Sal Braico’s background spans the pharmacy, medtech and biotech industries.
MyMeds is a business that is one of many going after the immense challenge of improving poor medication adherence. A fundamental part of MyMeds is its mission — that one reason for poor adherence is a lack of awareness by patients for why they had to take them. One component of the product is to educate patients on their condition and why they need a particular medication. It also seeks to make patients feel more connected to their care teams. Patients are sent reminders when it is time to take their medication. The business partners with health plans and self-insured employers. It also integrates with pharma benefit managers (PBMs) and claims to be the only service in the country that can integrate universally with any PBM. So far it is working with three of the largest PBMs.
Perk Health The employer wellness business began in a dorm room at the University of Minnesota. Participants can earn weekly monetary rewards for fulfilling manageable goals for exercise and diet. The founders sought to create a business that would help people find rewards in habits that are good for them. By focusing on the individual experiences of its users, Perk Health sees a way to improve the way people manage their health and bring down healthcare costs for employers.
Prenosis wants to dramatically increase the frequency of diagnostic testing by making it more convenient for patients to get these tests. It seeks to develop a new field of medicine: “pre-symptomatic medicine”. The vision of the business, led by CEO Dr. Bobby Reddy Jr., is to enable diagnostic tests that are inexpensive, convenient, and painless so that billions of people can test themselves to collect a wide variety of biometrics. Its approach involves microfluidic and electrical sensing technologies.
Geneticure uses patented genomic tests, supported by clinical trial data and proprietary treatment algorithms, to end wasted office visits and improve compliance among patients with poorly controlled chronic diseases, starting with hypertension. Its CLIA-certified laboratory performs tests to guide patients’ ideal hypertension drug therapy.
Hitchhealth is about helping patients avoid missed medical appointments through rideshares. It automatically initiates a patient ride offer through SMS texts using a ride-share service such as Lyft when an appointment is scheduled, according to its website. Dr. Chip Truwit, the CEO, is chief innovation officer with the Upstream Healthcare Innovation at Hennepin County Medical Center.
Orderly Health developed a healthcare navigation service for self-insured employers. When users ask a question via text message, Slack or other text-based sources, Orderly transmits the question to the most appropriate data source from its data partners and internal database. The goal is to help employees make better decisions about their health and reduce healthcare costs. It enlists a set of partners for data and clinical insights such as Singlecare, Healthgrades, Dispatch Health and First Derm.
Toggle Health was cofounded by CEO Jake Miller to improve the surgery technology user experience. It developed a tool to help surgeons “toggle” between their patient’s medical data and other applications in the operating room through a sterile, wireless controller.
Photo: AdrianHillman, Getty Images
