As part of a three-year entrepreneurship program, 13 companies have been selected to receive expertise, resources and growth opportunities to accelerate their consumer health innovations, according to an announcement.
The program is part of a partnership between StartUp Health, a long-term academy and network for digital health entrepreneurs, and GE's healthymagination initiative, a $6 billion global commitment to provide better health for more people by improving the quality, access and affordability of care.
The 13 companies were picked from a field of 400 competing companies representing 22 countries. The winning companies selected from the United States, Ireland and Israel provide a wide range of healthcare solutions, including sensors, patient engagement, mHealth, big data, analytics and diagnostics.
One of the selected companies is Boston-based Care at Hand, co-founded by Dr. Andrey Ostrovsky and Jeffrey Levy, who have designed a mobile early warning system for elderly home care that decreases readmissions and empowers home care workers with less formal training to document health observations more easily. Care at Hand's technology platform transforms those observations into predictive alerts to supervising nurses for early disease detection and improved outcomes.
Another awardee is Ireland's GetHealth, founded by Chris Rooney and Liam Ryan, which provides a mobile and online platform designed to increase employee engagement in workplace wellness programs. Users describe the platform as the "Foursquare for Health," allowing people to check-in to their daily health tasks under the "Move, Munch and Mind" categories.
Israeli company Oxitone Medical, founded by Dr. Leon Eisen, was selected for its mission to dramatically improve patient safety by enabling early clinical response to acute pulmonary or cardiac dysfunction symptoms through continuous monitoring of pulse oximetry. To that end, Oxitone has developed the world's first wrist pulse oximeter without a fingertip probe, enabling comfortable, remote and continuous monitoring of blood oxygen level, pulse rate, beat-to-beat variation and activity out of the hospital environment anywhere, anytime.
Last year, StartUp Health announced 10 "Healthcare Transformers" for the inaugural class of its Academy for Health and Wellness Entrepreneurship. One of those selected was Bronwyn Spira, a physical therapist whose mission is to deliver mobile applications for physical therapists that transform the delivery of care. Spira is co-founder and President of FORCE Therapeutics, headquartered in New York City, which she founded with her husband Mark Lieberman, an entrepreneur and technology executive.
To learn more:
- read the announcement