[November 09, 2012] |
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Healthbox and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Host Boston Innovation Day
BOSTON --(Business Wire)--
Ten startups took the stage yesterday, showcasing their innovative
approaches toward creating better health care outcomes to investors,
sponsors, and mentors. Healthbox and its anchor partner, Blue
Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (BCBSMA), selected these ten
companies in August to participate in a rigorous three-month
accelerator program based in Cambridge, MA. As part of the day, event
attendees voted on which company they thought presented the most
creative solution for an industry need. The company with the most votes
received an additional $25,000.
"During the past twelve weeks, our accelerator partnership with
Healthbox has built a community of more than 100 business leaders who
have provided the ten entrepreneurs with intensive support to develop
and launch their health care innovations," said Andrew Dreyfus,
President and CEO of BCBSMA. "These promising businesses have already
created new jobs and have great potential to change how we provide
quality, affordable health care."
The ten companies that presented their progress to hundreds of leading
health care executives and investors are:
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Aavya Health: created a web-based tool that transforms
laboratory tests into rich, dynamic tools to help patients achieve
meaningful insight into their health and motivate healthy behaviors.
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Abiogenix: developed the uBox, an intelligent pillbox
that reminds, records and restricts when patients take their
medication. The information is transmitted wirelessly to the cloud
where it is analyzed for third parties including care circles,
physicians and payers.
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Bon'App: will be the new standard for nutritional information.
The easy to access iPhone (News - Alert) and web-based application allows consumers
to easily understand calories, sugar, salt and bad fat within food.
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GeckoCap: designed a cap that goes on an asthma inhaler that
will be utilized as a platform to improve poor pediatric asthma
adherence. The smart tool reminds children, sends tracking to parents
and informs clinicians with usage data.
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Gweepi Medical: developed the Smart Brief system, which
streamlines incontinence management by placing a sensor in the diaper,
reducing direct and indirect costs for a skilled nursing facility.
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Healthy Delivery: established an online service that curates
balanced, nutritious meal options and allows users to select a eek's
worth of meals utilizing a proprietary algorithm to adhere to users'
preferences and restrictions. The food for the meals is delivered to
the consumer's doorstep.
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iQuartic: uses proprietary analytics to provide delivery
systems with accurate insights into quality benchmarking, value-based
payment optimization and chronic disease management.
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Smart Scheduling: applies data analytics to physician office
records to enable administrators to optimize daily appointment
scheduling, improving provider productivity.
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Uprise Medical: designed iPad applications that curate existing
patient education content, allowing physicians to administer
customized education at the point of care and track adherence.
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Yosko: an iPad-based, single-login physician portal that
connects to and integrates with different EMRs to improve efficiency
and achieve better outcomes.
At the end of the event, Healthy Delivery was presented with the $25,000
Healthbox Innovator Award, voted on by Innovation Day attendees, for
demonstrating that their solution was the most creative approach to
solving a large industry need.
"Healthbox is honored to support ten startups that are truly tackling
the critical issues in health care," said Nina Nashif, Founder and CEO
of Healthbox. "Due to the support of our anchor partner, Blue Cross, and
our strategic partners, Express Scripts, HLM Venture Partners and Long
River Ventures, these ten companies have made significant progress in
three months and are better poised to have a tremendous impact on the
healthcare industry."
In addition to the company pitches, the following panels of health care
experts provided insight into how provider effectiveness, health and
wellness and patient engagement are driving innovation:
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Provider effectiveness: Michael Sachs, Chairman and CEO, Sg2
and Tom Hawkins, Medical Director Health Informatics (News - Alert), BCBSMA,
discussed approaches to encourage hospitals, doctors and other
clinicians to deliver more efficient, coordinated care while improving
quality outcomes.
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Health and wellness: Gigi Fioravanti Lyons, Senior Program
Manager Wellness Strategy, BCBSMA and Andrew Sykes (News - Alert), Chairman, Health
at Work, discussed the innovations in promoting and maintaining
healthy behaviors.
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Patient engagement: Alexandra Drane, Founder, Chief
Visionary Officer and Chair of the Board at Eliza Corporation and
Devorah Klein, Principal at Continuum, discussed breakthroughs in the
process to empower patients to take control of their own care.
About Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Blue Cross
Blue Shield of Massachusetts (www.bluecrossma.com)
is a community-focused, tax-paying, not-for-profit health plan
headquartered in Boston. Celebrating our 75th anniversary in 2012, we
are committed to working with others in a spirit of shared
responsibility to make quality health care affordable. Consistent with
our corporate promise to always put our 2.8 million members first, we
are rated among the nation's best health plans for member satisfaction
and quality.
About Healthbox Healthbox is a platform for innovation in
the healthcare industry. Our three-month accelerator program finds great
companies and passionate healthcare entrepreneurs and helps them grow
their businesses by providing seed capital, access to a broad and
diverse network of mentors, topical forums, strategic guidance and an
organized Innovation Day. Learn more about the Healthbox Boston
companies at our website: www.healthbox.com.
About HLM Venture Partners HLM Venture Partners (http://www.hlmvp.com/)
is a leading venture capital firm providing capital to emerging
companies focused on health care service, health care information
technology and medical devices. HLM has over $400 million of venture
capital under management and works with the leading growth companies
that are improving the quality of health care while reducing overall
costs. HLM supports entrepreneurs as they turn innovative ideas into
market-leading businesses, offering guidance on financial structuring,
resource allocation and deployment, strategic planning, strategic
introductions, and recruitment. HLM has offices in Boston, MA, and San
Francisco, CA (News - Alert).
About Long River Ventures Long River Ventures was formed by
a group of experienced entrepreneurs and venture investors. Over the
past decade the firm has established a reputation as a value added
investor with an extensive portfolio of seed and early stage companies
in healthcare, IT, and other technology-driven sectors. Long River is
designed and structured to make smaller initial investments than typical
for a venture capital firm, with initial funding often in the $250,000
to $1MM range. Long River Ventures is currently investing out of its
third fund, with offices in Amherst, Worcester and Boston. For more
information, visit www.longriverventures.com.
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