Making Waves in Health Innovation
A progress report on Health Transformers and companies making leaps within the StartUp Health portfolio
At StartUp Health, we write a lot about the “creative destruction” of health. This term, coined by economist Joseph Schumpeter, describes how entrepreneurs leap over stagnating systems and entrenched players to breath new life into the market with a wave of innovation. We’ve seen this kind of positive disruption transform industries like travel, banking, media, transportation, even art. For the past ten years, our thesis has been that health is next.
In this special progress report, we’re excited to introduce entrepreneurs from 35 StartUp Health companies who are at the forefront of this digital renaissance in health. They span eight of our 11 Health Moonshots, and have become leaders in their areas of health transformation. They are designers of community care models, inventors in AI and biotech, change makers in drug research and development, and pioneers in neuroscience, women’s and children’s health. All of them are united under the banner of StartUp Health’s mission: Supporting the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals for health and wellbeing by 2030 and a mission to improve the health of everyone on the planet by 2040.
By Patrick McGuire & Anne Dordai
Access to Care
Cityblock Health
CEO: Iyah Romm
Cityblock Health combines primary care, behavioral health and social services into a comprehensive healthcare solution to bring better care to communities where it’s needed most. The Brooklyn-based company extends care past traditional doctor visits by partnering with local community-based organizations and building technology that delivers robust healthcare services to its members. Cityblock’s platform streamlines communication for its members, while compiling and analyzing large swaths of healthcare data to better understand patient health. The company recently teamed up with EmblemHealth, ConnectiCare and Blue Cross North Carolina to expand its reach to thousands of people living in low-income neighborhoods.
Message Iyah via email at [email protected].
CliniVantage Healthcare Technologies
CEO: Dinesh Samudra
CliniVantage Healthcare Technologies builds end-to-end tech products and medical devices designed to enhance safety, quality of care and reduce costs throughout the healthcare industry. Based in Mumbai, India, CliniVantage creates solutions benefiting the entire healthcare ecosystem, from individual patients to public and private health systems. Their “MyLife” mobile app allows consumers to manage their healthcare appointments and prescriptions, while CliniVantage’s ProCare platform features data management for large hospitals, clinics and physicians. A HIMSS Innovations Award recipient, the company currently has over 600 customers with 1.4 million patients registered, and has processed over 2.5 million transactions.
Message Dinesh via email at [email protected].
Cloudbreak Health
CEO: Jamey Edwards
Cloudbreak Health connects disparate hospital networks and healthcare professionals through its proprietary platform. Cloudbreak aims to increase patient care and cut costs by providing telemedicine technology that delivers integrated video and language services across a multitude
of medical specialties. The California-based company connects over 1,000 hospitals across the U.S. and facilitates an average of 90,000 encounters monthly. Cloudbreak recently won the MedTech Breakthrough’s Best Overall MedTech Software Award, LA Business Journal’s 2019 Health Care Supplier of the Year and was featured on the Columbus Smart 50 List.
Message Jamey via email at [email protected].
Doctor.com
CEO: Andrei Zimiles
Described as a “Yelp for the medical world,” Doctor.com is on a mission to modernize the way patients and doctors connect across the healthcare industry. Offered to private practices and hospitals, the New York City-based company’s platform facilitates appointments, analyzes patient reviews, and improves online searchability, powering more than 100 solutions for every type of stakeholder in the system. The platform features provider directories and data points that paint a broad picture of a medical practice or hospital’s reputation online. Doctor.com has built relationships with 30% of doctors in the U.S., with a consumer network reaching over 100M patients nationwide. Doctor.com is actively expanding its recently-launched life sciences division to empower patients to find and connect with proper specialists for care.
Message Andrei via email at [email protected].
MouthWatch
CEO: Brant Herman
The New Jersey teledentistry company MouthWatch develops solutions designed to improve access for patients and boost revenue for practices. MouthWatch’s offerings include an intraoral camera that snaps high-quality images and TeleDent, a platform that delivers live-streaming, real-time data-sharing, and bespoke staff management features. TeleDent enables trained dentists to serve underserved communities by advising health professionals in places they aren’t able to be physically present in. MouthWatch, which hosted the Second Annual Teledentistry Innovation Awards, recently expanded its services to school screenings, geriatric care and rural outreach initiatives.
Message Brant via email at [email protected].
Ride Health
CEO: Imran Cronk
Founded by American Cancer Society Board Member Imran Cronk, Ride Health partners with healthcare organizations and ride services to provide transportation for patients who struggle to travel to receive care. The New York-based company has built a proprietary, tech-driven medical transportation ecosystem that coordinates logistics across organizations and streamlines transitions of care such as hospital discharges. Additionally, the platform takes into account the patient’s unique clinical and social needs, ensuring greater access to care. Ride Health currently partners with healthcare organizations and transportation providers across 30 states. The company recently closed a $6.2M Series A round led by Activate Venture Partners, with participation from New York Ventures, Newark Venture Partners and StartUp Health.
Message Imran via email at [email protected].
Trusty.care
CEO: Joseph Schneier
In an effort to address skyrocketing healthcare costs in the U.S., Trusty.care acts as a guide and translator for people stuck in the mire of applying for Medicare or Medicaid benefits. Trusty.care’s AI-driven tech is designed to help healthcare and insurance providers reduce the out-of- pocket costs of their members and help them make informed decisions about their health and benefits. The company’s proprietary software is now integrated into a network of over 400 credit unions, and the company recently partnered with the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, with a feature on medicare.gov.
Message Joseph via email at [email protected].
Cost to Zero
Biome Analytics
CEO: Stuart Jacobson
Biome delivers a new generation of performance applications designed to help physicians and hospitals deliver higher quality care at a lower cost, to every patient. The company combines clinically relevant benchmarks and assessments that include comprehensive libraries of clinical measures, risk stratification algorithms and performance improvement templates to guide both individual doctors as well as hospitals during crucial moments of care. Biome’s products, which are currently focused on cardiology are in use at over 40 hospitals across the country, and the company reports $3.2M in direct cost savings for its customers.
Message Stuart via email at [email protected].
Hindsait
CEO: Pinaki Dasgupta
Based in New Jersey, Hindsait’s AI-driven platform is designed to reduce waste, unneeded health services, preventable human errors and fraud in healthcare systems that is costing U.S. taxpayers $1.2T every year. Hindsait’s proprietary technology analyzes large swaths of healthcare data to inform clinical decision-making, ensure billing-coding accuracy and root out errors, anomalies and fraud. Through machine-learning and predictive analytics, Hindsait’s technology reduces costs and improves efficiency in complex health systems. The company recently entered into a strategic partnership agreement with SAP to broaden its reach.
Message Pinaki via email at [email protected].
Inbox Health
CEO: Blake Walker
Inbox Health, a medical billing company based in Connecticut, creates proprietary algorithm-driven technology that streamlines and personalizes the patient billing process. The company endeavors to reduce waste and improve payment metrics through a platform that communicates with patients through optimized messaging, timing and channels. Frustrated with how needlessly complex paying his own medical bills was, Blake Walker founded the company with a desire to remedy the problem through technology and design. The company added 300 practices to its platform in 2019, and facilitated more than four million payments.
Message Blake via email at [email protected].
Particle Health
CEO: Troy Bannister
Particle Health’s proprietary, HIPAA-integrated platform is reinventing data access for patients and consumers. Through the Particle Health ecosystem, patients share medical information without having to go through gatekeepers, and healthcare providers, physicians and insurance companies are provided with direct, uncomplicated access to the robust data network when they need it. The company raised a $2.3M seed round, led by Collaborative Fund with participation by StartUp Health, and it now has access to over 200 million patient records, 600,000 providers and >90% of acute EHRs including Epic, Cerner, Allscripts and athenahealth.
Message Troy via email at [email protected].
Sift Healthcare
CEO: Justin Nicols
Sift Healthcare’s medical billing platform is driving medical billing costs to zero for healthcare providers by collecting complex sets of payment data and making it easier to understand and predict future payment. Led by Justin Nicols, an industry expert in data analytics technology, the platform allows users to track payor behavior, view payment trends and identify claim denials in real time. An official presenter at the 2019 Cleveland Clinic Medical Innovation Summit, Sift Healthcare recently scored over three million healthcare claims from their partners and has been onboarded to support two top-30 health systems. In addition, the company recently won the Wisconsin Innovation Award.
Message Justin via email at [email protected].
SWIFT SHIFT
CEO: Assaf Shalvi
SWIFT SHIFT’s platform gives homecare agencies the power to attract talent, fill shifts and onboard new patients through a suite of mobile apps to create a better experience for
all individuals involved in the industry — agencies, caregivers and patients. The company aggregates and displays available shifts from multiple providers and matches them with local nurses through its proprietary recruitment marketplace. Operated on a paid subscription model, SWIFT SHIFT’s platform is designed to deliver convenience and reliability to nurses, patients and homecare agencies. The company recently completed a pilot program with a top-ten homecare provider, and is now expanding to the entire skilled nursing unit.
Message Assaf via email at [email protected].
Vive Benefits
CEO: Ron Weidner
Vive Benefits offers a suite of financial and administrative services designed to reduce complications and risks associated with traditional High Deductible Health Plans. The Utah-based company aims to stand in as a better substitute for health savings accounts through its health plan management app and medical payment card. Vive Benefits provides liquidity to employees during medical events, automates tax optimization and reduces borrowing costs by offering low-interest loans for healthcare services. Vive has developed carrier partnerships and broker relationships to deploy their novel financial solution to reach their first commercial goal of 100K members, and have closed multiple partnerships with leading financial institutions, getting it closer to eliminating medical bankruptcy.
Message Ron via email at [email protected].
Wellthie
CEO: Sally Poblete
Wellthie delivers cloud-based, SaaS marketing and analytics tools designed to help insurance companies better sell to consumers and improve retention rates. The New York City-based company modernizes the small business insurance shopping experience by offering the largest health insurance marketplace for small businesses, combining an enterprise-grade platform with direct access to expert broker support. A massive marketplace of over 12,000 products from more than 200 national carriers combined with an instant quote feature give small businesses a convenient one-stop shopping experience for all their insurance needs.
Message Sally via email at [email protected].
Cure Disease
AdhereTech
CEO: Josh Stein
AdhereTech is a New York-based company building tools to address prescription adherence. Sourced with data published by various large international healthcare companies, the company offers a proprietary medication adherence platform designed to help patients stay on their medication longer. AdhereTech’s massive data analytics offering allows pharmaceutical companies to better understand why patients discontinue, change or pause therapy. AdhereTech works with many of the world’s largest cancer drugs and multiple sclerosis drugs, and through these partnerships impacts tens of thousands of patients.
Message Josh via email at [email protected].
Cecelia Health
CEO: David Weingard
Cecelia Health, a New York City-based company, transforms lives and significantly improves the health outcomes of people living with chronic diseases. The platform streamlines patient-physician communication and is designed to help healthcare professionals increase patient volumes without sacrificing quality of care. Cecelia’s app allows doctors to not only coach their patients, but to also monitor and understand their health through collected data. Cecelia Health recently appointed former president of MetroPlus Health Plan, Dr. Arnold Saperstein, as its chief medical officer, as the company expands its products and services to customers across pharmaceutical, medical device and health plan market segments.
Message David via email at [email protected].
Conversa Health
CEO: West Shell III
Headquartered in Portland, Oregon, Conversa’s Conversation Platform delivers personalized, automated virtual care that monitors and manages populations at scale. Through AI technology built to converse with patients, the Conversa Conversation Platform draws from comprehensive clinical libraries in order to engage patients on health topics such as chronic care, pre and post-surgical care, medication adherence and a myriad of others. Customers working with Conversa reported a reduction in costly readmissions by over 30%, improved care plan adherence by 72% and a 30–50% reduction in unnecessary calls. In 2019, Conversa landed 10+ new clients including Northwell Health, UCSF, Davita, UNC Health and more, bringing the company closer to making conversation the cornerstone of health.
Message West via email at [email protected].
Cyclica
CEO: Naheed Kurji
Cyclica’s cloud-based, AI-augmented technology is built to help scientists design, screen and personalize medicines to shorten drug discovery from seven years, down to two years. The Canadian-based company pioneered Ligand Express, a proprietary computationally biophysical platform that delivers insights into a drug’s polypharmacology, and has developed other technologies designed to map and optimize medicines. Cyclica recently partnered with Yuhan Corp, one of Korea’s premier pharmaceutical companies, to advance the discovery of first-in-class medicines for oncology. And most recently, Cyclica and Biotech ATAI Life Sciences formed a new joint venture aimed at battling mental health by designing and synthesizing new compounds.
Message Naheed via email at [email protected].
eko.ai
CEO: James Hare
This Singapore-born company is automating the fight against heart disease. Serial entrepreneur James Hare teamed up with cardiologist Dr. Carolyn Lam to develop software that transforms the labor intensive process of developing and reading echo exams, reducing it to a one click, two-minute experience. The automation technology has gotten the attention of hospitals wanting to improve care as well as pharmaceutical companies hoping to speed up clinical trials. Eko.ai raised a $4M seed round, led by Sequoia, EDBi, with participation from StartUp Health. In 2019, the company won the Parkway Pantai Hospital Group’s Innovation Award and the Johnson & Johnson JLABS Innovation Award.
Message James and Carolyn via email at [email protected].
Joint Academy
CEO: Jakob Dahlberg
Joint Academy connects patients suffering from osteoarthritis with personalized treatment plans through a “digital clinic”, setting a new global standard for treatment of osteoarthritis. Patients are paired with licensed physical therapists who track treatment progress and prescribe pain management exercise plans. The company aims to provide healthy, sustainable treatment alternatives to substitute pain medication that can benefit patients without them ever having to visit physical therapists in person. Joint Academy has already treated over 10,000 patients and has secured cornerstone clients with payors and health systems in the U.S.
Message Jakob via email at [email protected].
Qura
CEO: Doug Adams
Qura develops wireless, implantable, pressure-monitoring technology designed to collect and analyze healthcare data in real-time. Hailing from Sudbury, Massachusetts, Qura aims to usher in a new era of “disease intelligence” in healthcare through implantable devices smaller than a grain of rice that can detect spikes in pressure in glaucoma and heart disease patients, adding data and analytics as an additional dimension for treatment. The company has 70 issued, licensed or pending patent applications, and has signed a manufacturing and supply agreement in support of their launch in the U.S. They are now accepting pre orders from veterinary ophthalmologists.
Message Doug via email at [email protected].
Nightingale Health
CEO: Teemu Suna
Born in Finland, this health company is tackling the global burden of chronic disease by predicting diseases earlier. The team’s proprietary blood test acts as an “early warning system,” allowing patients to understand their future risk of diseases like cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. After a sell-out launch in 2018, Nightingale has expanded to the U.S., with partnerships through PerkinElmer Genomics’ CLIA and a CAP-certified clinical laboratory in Pittsburgh, and into Asia through a collaboration with National University of Singapore to realize the prevention of chronic diseases in South East Asia. Most recently, the company launched My Nightingale, an app that provides personalized and comprehensive health data based on an individual’s blood, so that they can understand how their lifestyle affects their body.
Message Teemu via email at [email protected].
Sanguine Biosciences
CEO: Brian Neman
Founded in Los Angeles, CA in 2010, Sanguine is on a mission to put patients in charge of their health data to accelerate medical research. Using what might be called an “Uber-for-clinical-trials” model, their Trial Match platform makes it easy for patients to find and sign up for clinical trials and then sends a phlebotomist to their door. The company uses this interface to build what they call Sanguine Verified Patients communities, which then enable pharma partners to enroll and complete clinical trials more quickly. To date, Sanguine has worked with more than 30,000 patients on more than 500 research projects (and has been profitable since 2017).
Message Brian via email at [email protected].
Vheda Health
CEO: Shameet Luhar
Health insurance industry veteran Shameet Luhar heads Vheda Health, a company focused on cutting healthcare costs for underserved populations through a combination of high touch care and technology services. Vheda Health reduces costly emergency room expenses by designing tools that automate care plan compliance within patient populations. Plans enrolled with Vheda Health are proven to save an annual average of more than $17,000 per member per year. The Maryland-based company boasts a 41% ER and admit utilization reduction, as well as a 76% Medicaid member retention rate.
Message Shameet via email at [email protected].
Women’s Health
Babyscripts
CEO: Anish Sebastian
Babyscripts empowers providers and payors to improve the health of their pregnant and postpartum mothers through digital tools and remote monitoring experiences. With a moonshot goal of eliminating maternal mortality and morbidity in the U.S. by 2030, Babyscripts’ platform features American College of Gynecology (ACOG), CDC and NIH resources as well as customization features allowing physicians to upload videos and handouts to guide mothers throughout their pregnancies. As mothers interact with the platform through the “Mommy Kit” that includes a smartphone app and internet-connected medical devices, physicians are able to adjust care plans and intervene when needed without face-to-face visits. Babyscripts currently works with over 50 health systems in 24 different states that see more than 200K pregnancies a year, and it was recently named a Top 4 Fem-tech Company by UCSF Digital Health Awards.
Message Anish via email at [email protected].
Gennev
CEO: Jill Angelo
Founded by former Microsoft executive Jill Angelo, Gennev is a Seattle-based company that offers telehealth services, products and education resources for women experiencing menopause. Self-described as an “online clinic,” Gennev empowers women to take control of their health in the second half of life through a digital platform that connects women with physicians, builds personalized treatment plans and sells products that deliver menopause relief. Named one of Fast Company’s 2019 Health Trends of the Year, the women-owned company raised $4M in its seed round, led by Blue Run Ventures with participation by StartUp Health.
Message Jill via email at [email protected].
Children’s Health
Special X
CEO: Jason Lehmbeck
Founded by the father of a child with special needs, Special X provides families with special needs children with “Care Partners” to navigate legal work and insurance while also building a digital health and education record. The Special X app enables parents to connect with care providers, educators, insurance experts and other special needs families. The company recently launched a closed beta program for families living in Los Angeles.
Message Jason via email at [email protected].
Brain Health
Cala Health
CEO: Renee Ryan
Headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, Cala Health’s innovations are designed to deliver personalized peripheral nerve stimulation for patients suffering from a wide range of ailments. Cala merges wearable neuromodulation therapies with neuroscience technology to treat hand tremors, and the company is currently also developing treatments in the fields of neurology, cardiology and psychiatry. A pioneer in the bioelectronic medicine field, the company’s wearable Cala Trio product is the first non-invasive therapy for hand tremors. Cala Health recently raised $51M in its series C funding from investors including Novartis, Baird Capital, Johnson & Johnson Innovation, Lux Capital, GV and StartUp Health.
Message Renne via email at [email protected].
Savonix
CEO: Mylea Charvat, PhD
Based in San Francisco, Savonix’s proprietary Digital Cognitive Assessment Platform assesses the cognition of dementia patients through game-like versions of neurocognitive tests. After analyzing a patient’s test results, Savonix’s platform provides clinical decision support and care-planning tools in accordance with their Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Savonix and the Boston University School of Public Health recently partnered to launch the ASSIST study, a 400,000 individual, three-year study of brain health to identify how a wide range of factors influence our risk of developing dementia.
Message Mylea via email at [email protected].
Mental Health & Happiness
wayForward
CEO: Ritvik Singh
wayForward, a New York-based company, simplifies access to emotional wellness and behavioral healthcare to give people the care they need, when they need it. Navigating complex systems in order to receive behavioral health treatment is a major hurdle for many patients. wayForward addresses this problem by offering streamlined mental health services ranging from a self-guided program designed by clinicians to text coaching and video therapy. Now covering over five million employees through 13 partners including Humana, the company works with Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) throughout the U.S. “We’ve identified gaps in mental and behavioral health — and there are many — and we bridge them using evidence-based solutions and delivering them by our technology,” says Ritvik Singh.
Message Ritvik via email at [email protected].
Longevity
CarePredict
CEO: Satish Movva
CarePredict creates machine-sensing technology designed to discreetly monitor the health of aging populations. It reduces staffing costs and increases the quality and speed of care in single and group living homes by alerting health professionals and care providers when a senior’s daily living patterns differ from usual. Through non-invasive, wearable technology, CarePredict monitors patterns such as sitting, drinking, bathing, toileting, walking, sitting and sleeping to assess, predict and address health issues facing vulnerable seniors. In 2019, CarePredict signed contracts with 15 senior living facilities, four homecare franchises and a distributor, with access to 12,000 patients in the U.S.
Message Satish via email at [email protected].
LifeBio
CEO: Beth Sanders
Founded by healthcare journalist Beth Sanders, LifeBio is a digital storytelling platform for seniors designed to integrate into assisted living facilities, hospices, hospitals and residences that facilitate long-term care. The platform allows seniors to tell personal stories through text, photos and music about their lives, health and memories which reduces loneliness and increases social connectedness and wellbeing. Caregivers can access the platform to better understand their patients and improve their quality of care. In 2019, LifeBio’s sales exceeded $1M.
Message Beth via email at [email protected].
Devoted Health
CEO: Ed Park
Founded by brothers Todd and Ed Park, Devoted Health is a next-generation Medicare Advantage plan guided by a deep belief that every member should be treated like family. The company provides dedicated guides that shepherd members through the plan and the healthcare system at large, including everything from obtaining information about local doctors and pharmacies to finding fitness classes and eyeglasses. Devoted Health aims to be a one-stop shop that meets the healthcare needs of seniors and limits unnecessary trips to the doctor. The company is actively enrolling members into two new plans across four counties in the Houston metro area.
Message Ed via email at [email protected].
Zeel
CEO: Samer Hamadeh
Zeel is credited for pioneering the first mobile on-demand massage service through an app that delivers therapeutic massage, assisted stretching and yoga to customers at homes, hotels, spas and workplaces. Easily described as a “Lyft for massage” service, Zeel dispatches vetted, licensed and insured wellness professionals to its served locations in as little as an hour, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Zeel is also home to Zeel Spa, an on-demand staffing solution that allows spas to book appointments that normally would have gone unfulfilled due to last minute call-outs and appointment unavailability. Recently, the company signed a 138-hotel deal with Hyatt to power in-room massage at their hotels without spas. In 2019, Venus Williams joined the company’s Board of Directors and Cindy Crawford joined as brand ambassador, collaborations that fuel the industry’s understanding of how massage impacts health.
Message Samer via email at [email protected].
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Making Waves in Health Innovation was originally published in Health Transformer on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.