Today, January 5, 2015 Forbes Media released its fourth annual “30 under 30” list of 600 millennials that are changing the world in twenty diverse fields. The healthcare field contained eight entrepreneurs that can be further categorized into the digital health field. The nine entrepreneurs worked in the digital health space in healthcare integration, healthcare analytics and big data, patient engagement, wearables and medical devices.
Healthcare Integration
Katelyn Gleason started Eligible API, which currently has direct integrations with over ninety percent of insurers in the United States. Gleason is a former employee of DrChrono, an EHR Platform, therefore she saw first-hand how we are still stuck in the dark ages in terms of healthcare data interoperability. Eligible launched in November of 2012 and was part of the incubator Y-Combinator’s Summer 2012 class. Eligible is positioned to become the Stripe of healthcare, utilizing a REST-API that allows Eligible clients to bypass X12 EDI legacy systems. First round investors include top healthcare venture capitalists, SV Angel’s David Lee, and Andreessen Horowitz.
Pelu Tran founded Augmedix in 2012 which automatically populates the electronic health record based on conversations between a patient and a provider. Augmedix also allows the provider to request details from patient chart including patient results such as cholesterol or blood pressure. BIDMC showcased a similar in-house solution at the Boston Google Glass Challenge last year and has seen positive results with the implementation. Twelve medical facilities across five states use the product, including Dignity Health. Augmedix raised $7.3 million in venture capital funds from Silicon from DCM and Emergence Capital Partners.
Healthcare Analytics and Big Data
Recombine, founded by Alexander Bisignano in 2011 utilizes big data and analytics to perform genetic testing on couples, letting them know if their progeny is at risk for genetic diseases. The test costs couples $345 and only informs clients of ailments that have cures. Recombine raised Series A funding in March for $3.3M provided by FirstMark Capital.
Nat Turner, co-founded Flatiron Health in 2012 in New York City. Flatiron created Oncology Cloud, which aggregates clinical and financial data from the EMR and billing systems in real-time into its HIPAA compliant platform. Once the data is in the platform, providers can access metrics such as: population stats, reimbursement, treatment patterns, resource utilization, and other key performance indicators.
Patient Engagement
Yifan Zhang, my Carmel High School classmate, co-founded Pact, health tracking app that integrates with EHRs, in 2010. Yifan actually won the award in the Consumer Technology Category, however her company could have easily been placed in the Healthcare Category. Pact Health is the first health app that uses individuals’ health data to lower their health costs. The startup acts as a layer on top of a current healthcare insurance policy. Employees working for companies who buy Pact Health can gain or lose $5 off their deductible coverage based on how faithfully they stick to their workouts. Pact Health has raised 1.6M from four rounds of funding provided by Khosla Venture and others.
Jason Bornhorst is the CEO of Filament Labs, which created Patient IO, a platform that aids providers in creating personalized aftercare plans for patients. Patient IO integrates with Apple’s HealthKit and allows patients to view their plans and reminders from their providers on their mobile devices. Patient IO also has a web dashboard that allows health professionals to track their entire population from their desktop. Filament Labs raised $1 million in a seed round led by Mercury Fund in spring of 2014.
Wearables
David He co-founded Quanttus, health wearable company in 2012 in Cambridge, MA. Quanttus is creating a device which aims to provide continuous health monitoring and analysis to consumers and transform heart heath. The wearable will measure heart signals that can be detected in small, imperceptible movements in a person’s body. Quanttus has raised $22 million from Khosla Ventures and Matrix Partners.
Medical Devices
Co-founders of Eko Devices, Connor Landgraf, Tyler Crouch and Jason Bellet all won the Forbes 30 under 30 award for their digital stethoscope. Eko Core fits between the earpiece and chest piece of a stethoscope thereby allowing providers to visualize, record, share, and analyze heart sounds using a cloud-based algorithm. Eko Devices has raised $800,000 in seed money and has been working with the StartX accelerator at Stanford.
The judges for the healthcare category included Jonathan Rothberg the Chief strategy officer at 4Catalyzer, Bob Kocher a Partner at Venrock and Christi Shaw theUS country head and president at Novartis Corporation.
