Healo's app.
New York City-based digital health incubator Blueprint Health has announced its sixth class of startups, a lineup that includes seven groups developing mobile tools to help doctors, researchers, and startups. Blueprint is a member of TechStars’ Global Accelerator Network, and startups in the Blueprint Health accelerator receive $20,000, office space in SoHo, and $50,000 in perks including server space and legal counsel. Blueprint takes a 6 percent equity stake in exchange.
Some previous Blueprint companies have been making news lately; GeriJoy, AllazoHealth, and Healthify all received Pilot Health Tech NYC 2014 grants, Symbiosis Health announced an expansion from Chicago to the New York City market, AdhereTech raised its first round of funding, and Touch Surgery ended up in the Daily Mail when patients started using the app -- designed to be used by surgeons-in-training -- to learn more about their own procedures.
Here's the seven new startups that joined the program today, bringing the total size of Blueprint's portfolio up to 53 companies:
Healo (not to be confused with eClinicalWork's patient engagement app Healow) wants to use the mobile phone to improve wound care and eliminate unnecessary doctor visits. Through the app, created by cofounders Nathan Le and Peter Jackson, patients with wounds can simply photograph the wound at regular intervals (determined by their physician) and answer questions about the wound when necessary. The company says the app could eliminate 90 percent of visits for most wounds, saving the patient money and freeing the doctor up to see more patients.
Although most providers have adapted electronic medical records, according to HITEKS 70 percent of the data collected from patients is still unstructured data -- forms filled out in natural language that a computer can't readily interpret. This New York City-based startup aims to address that inequity with a cloud-based software that interprets that data and so it can be electronically analyzed and used to gain insights about population health and care.
Moov
Moov cofounders Evan and Casey Ryan and Einar Vollset are developing an app for physical therapists and their patients. Using instructional videos, physical therapists can assign movement exercises to their patients with instructional videos, and patients can self-report their progress and adherence. Moov is also the name of an activity tracker that launched in February, but the two companies are not affiliated.
Like Healo and Moov, OhMD is working on an app through which doctors and patients can communicate in lieu of an in-person visit. The software can integrate through a patient portal so the workflow for doctors doesn't change, but it puts the patient at ease because their end of the conversation "has the look and feel of a text message conversation," according to a Blueprint Health press release.
RxDatapoint is building a database of pharmaceutical pricing and reimbursement data -- data that is currently "scattered, fragmented, and in multiple languages, making it difficult for pharmaceutical companies and consulting firms to draw the insight required to make the best business decisions," according to the Blueprint release. The company has more than 100 GB of data and plans to launch in September.
Stirplate.io is a data sharing platform for researchers, allowing them to analyze results and share findings with one another. Cloud storage can help researchers store their data more securely, as well as letting them selectively share with students, professors, or collaborators. Founder Keith Gonzalez has a mixed background, with four years in IT and eight more in neuroscience.
Urgent consult is an app for doctors to aid in streamlining the referral process. It helps doctors to find a specialist quickly and then gives them the tools to touch base with that specialist, schedule an appointment for the patient in question, and transfer the patient's electronic medical records to the specialist. The mission is to close the gaps in the referral process that patients can sometimes fall through.
