by Serjao
1. stickk
With its roots beginning at Yale University, stickK co-founder Dean Karlan noticed a need for accountability when it came to personal health. Karlan himself fell victim to the habit of setting weight-loss goals and never seeing them through. After entering into a financial contract with a friend to lose 38 pounds each, Karlan realized the true power of accountability. With major money on the line and an added no negotiation clause, both men found themselves 38 pounds lighter at the end of their trial. Inspired by his success, Karlan wanted to share his newfound Commitment Contracts with the world.
2. ZocDoc
In 2007, ZocDoc was created to provide the citizens of New York with a way to make dentist appointments online. Four years later, it has evolved into a Web site that now serves 12 major cities in the U.S and over 60 fields of expertise. ZocDoc allows users to search by medical specialty, along with your insurance provider and zip code. With one click, all of the doctors in the selected field in your area and insurance network are visiblealong with their available appointments. By clicking on an appointment time, you can actually book the appointment on the spot.
ZocDoc continues to be at the forefront of this technologyeven adding an app for your phone. They also produce a blog that offers information on everything from different medical conditions to healthy lifestyle practices.
3. Cake Health
If you ask the average person to explain a hospital bill or insurance plan in depth, the answer youll often receive is a blank stare. Medical bills and insurance paperwork are the bane of most patients existence. Thats exactly what Rebecca Woodcock, co-founder of Cake Health, grew tired of after watching a friend find herself in financial and unnecessary trouble due to a medical condition.
Cake Health offers users a way to track, organize and understand their medical bills and insurance policies. Once you enter your health care information into your personal and secure account, you are able to see exactly where your money is going and even track your deductibles and claims history. Cake Health also offers users alerts and reminders for things like possible overcharges, reaching your deductible and prescription refills.
One Medical Group believes in more quality time with your doctor and less time in the waiting room. Founded by Dr. Tom X. Lee, One Medical caters to an atmosphere of hospitality. Much like with a concierge doctor, patients are given the time and care not often seen in todays medical offices.
With locations in San Francisco, D.C. and New York, One Medical is changing the way patients interact with their doctors. The practitioners see, at a maximum, 16 patients per dayabout 9 less than the average doctor. This allows patients more quality time with their doctors. Patients can also log in to their personal account to book same-day appointments, view medical records and even refill prescriptionssaving an extra trip to the doctor. One Medical also allows patients to email their doctor directly with questions and even treatment updates.
A health technology and services company, RedBrick Health is leading the health care industry to Consumer-Owned health. This concept allows employers to promote wellness in their company, as they guide their employees to take ownership of their personal health.
RedBrick offers personal wellness programssuch as biometric health screeningsto employers looking to decrease their insurance costs. These programs reward healthy behavior in employees while also promoting long-term healthy lifestyle choices. They believe healthier employees increase productivity in the workplace. RedBrick stands by their mission to help people live the fullest and healthiest lives they can possibly live.
6. Avado
With products for both the provider and patient sectors, Avado is changing the way doctors run their practicesmaking visits easier on their patients. Their Patient Relationship Management (PRM) system offers a way to effectively engage in a partnership with their patients. The PRM allows doctors to send patients reminders to take their vitals, perform their physical therapy and even reminders to take their medicine.
Avado allows patients to have a true relationship with their physicians, and at the same time, feel like they have a voice with their personal health care. Avados PRM system is a great way for patients to record and track their health history by uploading their vital statistics. This tool is not only helpful to individuals, but to families in need of organization when it comes to their medical needs.
7. Bloom Health
With a vested interest in both employers and their employees, Bloom Health is changing the way you can choose health insurance. Bloom Health offers employers a way to give their employees options when it comes to health care.
How does it work? Employers offer a defined amount of money toward each employee, and through Bloom Healths personality report, individuals can choose which plan suits them best. After taking a quiz, employees are given the best insurance plans based on their individualized results. Next, they can compare and contrast plans against what they currently have. Should the employee choose a different plan, Bloom Health takes care of the application process with one click.
8. Sharecare
Realizing the educational power of the Internet, Dr. Mehmet Oz and Jeff Arnold created Sharecarean interactive Q&A platform to provide quality health care information to the public. Sharecare gives people clear and concise information about their health, all in one place.
Renowned doctors, expert researchers and leading medical professionals come together to offer the most current treatment options, wellness advice, nutrition information and much more. Commercial brands answer questions about their products, so users can make an informed decision about their well-being.
Sharecare established an Advisory Board, hosting the finest medical professionals in the industry. They represent the different areas of medical expertise and are committed to consumer health education. Sharecare also has an A-Z reference library for many medical topics. Simply type in a question and get instant answers from top medical professionals around the world.
COMS Interactive, LLC: This company has developed a Software as a Service (SaaS) disease management system that improves the quality of care that residents receive in long-term care facilities, while driving increased occupancy and revenue.
CoverMyMeds helps physicians and pharmacists complete Prior Authorization and other insurance coverage determination forms for any drug and for most drug health plans. Patient authorization is required to use the site.
DOMA Technologies: This is a privately owned Virginia Limited Liability Corporation founded in 2000, which provides Software as a Service (SaaS) document management applications and services aimed across multiple vertical markets. DOMA is involved in helping hospitals, physician practices and other health care providers turn paper records into digital files for easy access, routing and retrieval.
Explorys: This company enables leading healthcare and life sciences organizations to expand research within their ranks by providing a powerful, accessible, and intuitive platform to collaborate, search, and tag meaningful correlations between treatments and outcomes within patient populations.
Glide Health: This company produces a complete mobile desktop for patients, doctors and other healthcare professionals. They are automatically synched with doctor’s Electronic Medical Records (EMR) platforms and makes possible compatible and secure exchange of patient records among different systems.
Human Arc: The focus of this company is on reimbursement recovery for healthcare providers, revenue enhancements for health plans, and health care coverage cost savings for employers.
Lexi-Comp: Since 1978, Lexi-Comp has evolved its content base and technology solutions to provide clinically relevant, real-time information at the point-of-care in knowledge areas that include pharmacology, interactions, diagnostic procedures and laboratory tests, pharmacogenomics, poisoning and toxicology, dentistry, infectious diseases, and patient education.
MDG Medical: MDG has developed the ServeRx automated medication management system for reducing medication errors, enhancing nursing and pharmacy productivity, and lowering health care costs.
NextBio: This company provides a platform that enables life science researchers to search, discover, and share knowledge locked within public and proprietary data. In effect, this product allows senior R&D management to increase research productivity, while decreasing research costs, by better utilizing publicly available experimental data and unlocking the value of past, current, and future internally-generated data.
StreamlineMD: StreamlineMD delivers an affordable, reliable Electronic Medical Records (EMR) solution to small and midsized physician practices. This is the first EMR solution to combine software, local training and support, and remote hosting into a subscription-based service. StreamlineMD is the highest-rated EMR system in the marketplace for small practices, according to the leading industry consultant, AC Group.
Talyst: This company produces a software platform that integrates pharmacy barcoding, storage, inventory, ordering and clinical systems. They are dedicated to improving patient safety and operational efficiency in acute care hospitals and in long-term care, as well as in closed-door, correctional, and retail pharmacies.
Communication and Imaging Technology
Covia Labs: After acquiring its core technology from DARTdevices, Covia developed solutions for the Alert & Respond and Command & Control markets and added a Push-to-Talk application, so that first responders and military personnel can improve operational capabilities and save lives.
Interventional Imaging: This company’s disposable catheters can generate high-resolution, cross-sectional images of the arteries. This new proprietary technology includes micro-coils that can be inserted directly into a vessel to communicate with the MR system, representing a novel approach to MR imaging from within the body.
NextSlide Imaging: NextSlide has developed a digital imaging tool set for laboratory hematology that enables users to review smears via a full-resolution digital image rather than traditional microscopy. Not yet approved by the FDA for clinical use.
nViso: Although this tool was created for marketing purposes, the vision of how to use it in the medical information field could be limitless. The product is a Web-enabled software that subjectively measures emotions through facial expressions, along with the ability to adapt to cultural differences.
Twenty20: This company produces ContourHD, the world’s first and smallest wearable video camera. While the Web site focuses on sports, this type of information technology seems ideal for the medical field, especially surgical procedures.
VasoLux: VasoLux’s technology provides a real-time histological assessment of the tissue without the need to take a biopsy. Additionally, VasoLux’s technology is designed to be used intra-operatively — a feature not possible with competing molecular imaging technologies such as MRI, SPECT, and PET.
ViewRay: ViewRay, Inc., a privately held medical device company, has earned a 2010 NorTech Innovation Award for its advancements in radiation therapy technology for the treatment of cancer. ViewRay was honored for its unique combination of medical imaging and radiotherapy, which is designed to improve the effectiveness of cancer treatments.
VSee: When you find a product that has been field-hardened to work well over wireless tactical networks in the Mideast and Africa, you might be interested in its use in a medical environment. VSee is designed for ad-hoc informal remote work — the constant micro collaborations that get things done.
Zin Medical: This company has partnered vMetrics with NASA and the Cleveland Clinic, providing a fully configurable, multi-parameter wireless biometric monitoring platform technology. The modular distributed architecture allows vMetrics to be used across any commercially available wireless network including WiFi, cell phone and wireless medical telemetry systems.
Patient Care
eMedical Lending: This is a new method of financing that connects patients with a network of lenders through eMedical’s relationships with medical practices and their proprietary direct to consumer web-based application. While this business is listed under patient help, eMedical also works with health care providers.
Globefunder Ventures Inc.: This private revenue cycle solutions and tech company offers a web-based platform, IOU SOS, that helps patients find a way to save money on medical bills. It works much line Priceline or eBay, by helping providers speed small balance collections and by providing clients with motivation to pay.
Healthy Humans: Healthy Humans helps people with chronic illnesses by focusing on the underlying causes of illness based on real research and real results. Patients receive medical plans, and the patient can track his her or improvements through an integrative approach to treatment. Healthy Humans received the 2009 Life Sciences Startup Company of the Year award from the Eastern Technology Council.
KEAS: Keas Care Plans are designed to help shed some light on a specific health and wellness issues, but the information comes in all shapes and sizes. By working with medical professionals and other health experts, KEAS adds new plans all the time to help people cope with a variety of health issues.
Treatment Online: This service uses the familiarity and anonymity of the Internet to provide programs for people who are stigmatized about seeking help for behavioral problems. It combines a rich choice of self-help resources with psychological support, evaluation, and information within a safe and secure environment.
Without further ado, here they are:
Agile Diagnosis is creating a web and mobile platform that provides clinicians with evidence and expert-consensus based, best practices in the form of highly actionable clinical algorithms. The startup wants to make it easier and quicker for clinicians to give their patients the best possible care.
Avva is the first, online patient-focused breast cancer management tool that allows patients to comprehensively organize, manage, and communicate important information throughout the breast cancer experience.
Cardiio empowers ordinary people with simple yet powerful tools to experiment, gain insight and take charge of their health and wellbeing.
Care at Hand is a mobile-based electronic health records and workflow automation software for home health care agencies. It also allows for new participation by family members via an online portal. With increased efficiency, agencies will be able to retain and attract new customers at a higher rate.
ChickRx is a healthy living community and marketplace for young women. Young women are preoccupied with health and wellness (diet, weight, birth control, STDs, mental health, skin, etc.), but existing health sites are clinical, target everyone or target moms.
Cognitive Health Innovations provides an online environment to help people address mental health issues and achieve personal growth goals using scientifically validated psychotherapeutic techniques and structured social interactions.
Docphin is the Bloomberg for Doctors. Docphin is a platform that personalizes medical news and research. In an environment that includes over a thousand medical journals with content that is increasingly complex and fragmented, physicians have grown tired of searching for relevant news. Docphin was created to address the “find” problem which has challenged physicians for decades. Docphin’s platform enables users to easily personalize the news and research that matters most to them and their patients.
Epi.MD is creating a dynamic, social population management tool that’s designed to help medical providers manage their patient population, disseminate information about new health care trends, and take immediate action to improve the health of their patients.
GetMyCare is a home health care marketplace that helps families find high quality caregivers at the lowest cost. Caregivers on our network range from non medical home care aides to physical therapist to licenced registered nurses.
HealthRally is a crowdfunding platform that lets friends and family motivate one another to achieve health goals with money and rewards. Think KickStarter for personal health motivation. (Read our coverage of HealthRally’s seed raise from Esther Dyson and more here.)
Helpful Systems is building an analytics system to predict and identify patients who are most at-risk for developing a hospital-acquired infection based on patient demographics and behavior patterns, hospital staff behavior patterns, and hospital logistics.
Nephosity shares medical images on the iPad. Doctors have access to a patient’s medical images anywhere, anytime, and can collaborate with their colleagues.
Sano is developing a powerful mobile health monitoring product that will reveal new insights about stage zero care.
Senstore is a spin-out from Singularity University’s Graduate Studies Program 2011. We are developing open innovation tools and a community of developers and entrepreneurs to catalyze innovation around sensor devices and applications. Our long term vision is to crowdsource the development of a medical tricorder which will enable low cost medical diagnosis to be performed by anyone, from anywhere.
Sessions aims to unlock social exercise by allowing people to share and discover exercise sessions around them. Think Meetup meets Foursquare for exercise.
Also GigaOm has a great article about health startups.
Truncated lists provided above for convenience. For full articles, see company websites or:
http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-10-17/strategy/30288707_1_health-care-appointments-insurance
http://mastersinhealthinformatics.com/2010/25-notable-start-ups-changing-the-medical-information-industry/
http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/16/healthtech-accelerator-rock-health-peels-back-the-curtain-on-its-second-batch-of-startups/