Mayo Clinic and Arizona State University have united to develop the MedTech Accelerator, which is specially geared toward early-stage medical device and health IT companies.
Six startups are in the accelerator’s inaugural class. Here’s a closer look at the organizations and what they’re tackling:
- BioInteractive Technologies in Vancouver, Canada, develops a wearable device for individuals who have suffered from a hand injury. The aim of the patent-pending wristband is to help patients have a better recovery process.
- GYANT, which is based in San Francisco, marries artificial intelligence, messaging and medical experts to help primary care patients. The company was part of the 2019 MassChallenge HealthTech cohort and the Cedars-Sinai accelerator’s fall 2017 cohort.
- Montreal, Canada-based Hexoskin offers a wearable shirt for in-home rehabilitation. The product can measure heart rate, activity, breathing rate and sleep.
- Life365 is a remote patient monitoring company headquartered in Tempe, Arizona. Its focus is on evaluating patient adherence to care plans in post-acute settings.
- Los Angeles-based Safe is a HIPAA-compliant sexual health app. Through it, patients can consult a physician, schedule diagnostic testing and access relevant wellness education.
- Securisyn offers a medical device that provides airway stability for ventilated patients to prevent unplanned extubations. The company is based in Colorado.
To kick things off, the startups are taking part in an immersion program at Mayo Clinic’s Arizona campus from April 22-May 3. Participants will complete the accelerator within six to 12 months.
The ultimate goal is to give the startups the chance to develop or optimize new products, license intellectual property and sponsor research and clinical studies.
“Through focused business development and interactions with the Greater Phoenix entrepreneurial ecosystem, this program will create strategic alliances that rapidly commercialize healthcare technologies resulting in a global impact,” Timmeko Love, managing partner of the accelerator and a senior manager at the department of business development at Mayo Clinic, said in a statement.
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.
The MedTech Accelerator is part of the Mayo Clinic Arizona State University Alliance for Health Care, which was formed in 2016. However, the entities began their relationship long before that. They first partnered in 2002.
More recently, Mayo and ASU broke ground on the Health Futures Center, which is scheduled to open at the end of 2020. The Phoenix facility will house the MedTech Accelerator, as well as an education zone, nursing programs and biomedical engineering and informatics research labs.
Photo: akindo, Getty Images
