Tom Paine
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One thing that's important in Healthcare IT is that small startups usually can't work in
an isolated world; they have to be able to envision how their product is going to work with larger, integrated healthcare systems while meeting all the safety, regulatory and interoperability requirements that exist. On the other hand, large healthcare provider and payer organizations need startup-like talent, initiative and thinking that may be hard to obtain from within their own organizations. The trick is trying to bring these two qualities together.
Mobile Monday Mid-Atlantic will be holding its
Mobile Healthcare Forum on Monday (the 10th) at 5:30 at The Hub Cira Centre under the theme "The Consumerized Patient: Engaging with mobile." (
Tickets are available.)
Keynoting will be Dr. Shoshanna Sofae, the Robert P. Luciano Professor of Health Care Policy at the School of Public Affairs, Baruch College, City University of New York. Her major research interests include patient engagement, patient-centered care, patient experience surveys, public deliberation to guide health policy, comparative quality and cost reporting and developing quality measures that resonate with the public. She will talk about the challenges that face patients/ consumers at present in healthcare, to which mobile apps may be a response.
She will also join a panel discussion, which will include Stephanie Hwang, BA, RN, BSN - Co-founder and Chief Clinical Officer for AirCare (aircareapp.com), a promising Philadelphia start-up focused on healthcare communications software; Chris Mayaud, MD - Founder and CEO of The Verticom Group, an active investor who has extensive healthcare, technology, and operating experience managing companies from start-up through growth phases; Kenneth Russo - Independence Blue Cross, Director, Digital Experience Center of Excellence and Director of IBC’s Consumer Digital Engagement Team; and David Brooks - Founder + CEO of Medlio, which is building tools and technology that seek to empower consumers to get more involved in the management of their own healthcare. Medlio's first tool, a virtual health insurance card, puts the traditional static insurance card— currently the only intersection between patients, providers, and payers— on a single, secure, real-time communications platform.
Both AirCare and Medlio came out of the DreamIt Healthcare incubator program in Philly.
The Forum is timely as it comes on top of some interesting recent news reports. One, earlier this week, was the announcement by
Independence Blue Cross of plans to invest up to $50 million in health-related venture funds and individual start-up companies in the Philadelphia area. IBC plans to invest about half the $50 million in regional venture funds or in partnership with organizations including the University City Science Center or DreamIt Health "in funds that are building a broader base of capital to attract innovation to the region," IBC CEO Daniel J. Hilferty told the Philadelphia Inquirer.
The second is a story from the
Wall Street Journal reporting on the outlook of a prominent healthcare IT VC, Anne DeGheest. While positive about the sector as a whole, she sees too many seed companies and an emerging "Series B" crunch.
"There’s a tidal wave of startups like we’ve never seen before," DeGheest told the Journal. "It’s kind of like the dot-com boom, there is this rush to build a product that you can demo. Thirty-five companies presented [at a health I.T. conference affiliated with the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference]. And at CES, I lost count. The effort is all going into making a product that can be shown, but not into building a business. I don’t see enough actual business plans."
The third is
a new regulation issued by HHS last week that enables patients to obtain their test results directly from the lab rather than having to request them through the physician's office.
The fourth is the
apparent rapid rise of Castlight Health, a California startup co-founded by current US CTO Todd Park in 2008. Castlight, which provides software companies use to help its employees shop for healthcare benefits, has secretly filed for an IPO which reportedly could value the business at up to $2 billon.
