MassChallenge, a global network of nonprofit startup accelerators, has chosen 30 companies for its 2019 cohort of top digital health companies.
Participants in the Boston, Massachusetts-based program will take part in a six-month curriculum that partners the companies with larger Champion organizations that support the startups with product pilots, research assistance and potential investment. Cohort companies also receive free office space for six months and access to mentorship and advisers from across the healthcare ecosystem.
“For entrepreneurs that go through our program we quickly train them how to be evidence-based and I think that makes them more resilient in the long term because they’re not building to hype and eyeballs and instead building to the real economic drivers in healthcare,” Nick Dougherty, managing director of MassChallenge HealthTech, said in an interview.
Each partnership is dedicated towards tackling big challenges in healthcare ranging from issues like caregiver support to behavioral health to population health management.
Some examples of Champion organizations and their strategic initiatives include GlaxoSmithKlein, which is looking at improving respiratory health with a digital health solution, the AARP, which is trying to tackle post-operative cognitive decline, and Atrius Health, which is focused on innovation in outpatient care.
The healthtech accelerator program initially launched in 2017 and the 60 startups that have participated in the program have raised more than $145 million in funding and created more than 700 jobs, according to MassChallenge.
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.
This year’s cohort has more geographic diversity than in years past with six companies from outside the U.S. and 14 from states other than Massachusetts.
The 2019 healthtech cohort are as follows:
Boston, Massachusetts-based 1upHealth is focused on helping to make health data easier to access and use with HL7 and FHIR standards. Earlier this year, the company won an HHS Health Data Provenance Challenge.
Alavita Health, previously known as Multisensor Diagnostics, is based in Pikesville, Maryland and has created MouthLab, a device that it claims can measure a range of health metrics through breath and saliva in less than a minute.
New York-based Bonbouton is a company focused on preventative healthcare and remote monitoring for diabetes through low-cost wearable graphene sensors.
Buoy Health is located in Boston, Massachusetts and has created an AI-based chatbot to help analyze patient symptoms and direct them to care. Earlier this year the company inked a deal with CVS Health to route patients to the company’s retail clinics when appropriate and has raised more than $9 million in funding.
Miami Beach, Florida-based Care Angel has developed an intelligent virtual nurse assistant to manage, monitor and engage patients.
Combinostics from Tampere, Finland assists doctors in making data-driven early diagnosis of neurological disorders through AI-enabled analysis of brain scans.
DynamiCare Health, based in Boston, Massachusetts, is focused on helping people with addiction and substance abuse disorders.
Hasset, Belgium-based Epihunter develops digital solutions to monitor and manage epilepsy.
Marigold Health, previously known as Sunrise Health, is headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland and works on improving behavioral health through anonymous chat support groups.
Frame Health, based in Los Angeles, California, has developed cloud-based software meant to lower healthcare costs by predicting which patients are at high risk of readmission.
Gain Life, headquartered in Boston, has developed a behavior change platform.
Mountain View, California GoGoGrandparent is often dubbed the Uber for grandparents and customizes the rideshare experience for seniors to help solve their transportation needs.
GYANT is headquartered in San Francisco, California and uses an AI powered chatbot that is connected to a human clinician to serve primary care patients.
GyroGear based in London, has built wearable devices to stabilize people with hand tremors and allow them to perform their daily tasks.
Lighter is a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based nutrition startup that helps people make better eating decision using dietitian expertise.
Lumme Inc., based in Amherst, Massachusetts, is working on a way to help people quit smoking using wearables.
Neteera Technologies, headquartered in Jerusalem, Israel, is dedicated through remote monitoring through advanced sensor technology.
Pixm, Inc., based in Waltham, Massachusetts, produces anti-phishing cybersecurity software.
Pumpspotting has created an app that connects breastfeeding moms to help them find the best places to nurse and pump. The startup is based in Eliot, Maine.
Radial Analytics, based in Maynard, Massachusetts is trying to help hospitals determine which patients should be discharged.
Sensio AIR is headquartered in Beirut, Lebanon and monitors, predicts and helps prevent asthma and allergy symptoms by collecting environmental data.
Atlanta, Georgia-based Sequegenics is trying to perform low-cost, high-resolution human genome sequencing.
SIGNUM, based in Brookline, Massachusetts, combines patient education and patient consent forms in an easy to understand, yet comprehensive app
The Mighty is located in Burbank, California collects stories and builds communities of patients undergoing shared healthcare experiences.
Albuquerque, New Mexico-based Twistle is a patient engagement platform meant to ease communication between patients and providers.
Valera Health, based in New York, has developed an app to help clinicians remotely monitor patients suffering from anxiety and depression. Last year, the company raised a $3.4 million Series A round from the investment arm of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona.
Veta Health based in New York, connects clinicians and patients outside traditional care settings.
Voiceitt is an Israeli company that is developing speech recognition technology to help translate the words of people with speech disabilities.
Jersey City, New Jersey-based Welnys handles on-site wellness programs for employers.
Zakipoint Health, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts is a healthcare cost analytics tool geared toward self-funded employers
Photo: akindo, Getty Images
