After an exciting morning at the 3D Printing Conference, I headed to SoHo in an UberX car for lunch at Blueprint Health’s 5th annual Demo Day. Blueprint Health leverages NYC’s thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem of entrepreneurs and mentors. After a networking lunch with more than 500, they introduced seven companies, who then each gave a 10-minute presentation about their strategy, financial model, and financing plans. See a highly-abbreviated summary below from Blueprint Health about the startup companies and what they had to say.
The entrepreneurs did an excellent job of explaining their business model and the benefits to healthcare providers from their solutions. Most of the financial flows they projected was from hospitals. The justification for the hospitals was for improved efficiency or more effective care delivery. Despite the justification, selling IT solutions to hospitals is not easy — it is a big, but tough market to crack. Hospital CIOs are conservative and rightly protective of security and privacy. Administrators are interested in savings, but under great financial pressure from reimbursement squeezes by public and private payers. The good news for the entrepreneurs is that they have excellent support from early adopters and the team of mentors organized by Blueprint Health.
Following Demo Day was a small dinner with a few dozen healthcare investors and leaders. With healthcare representing nearly 20% of the U.S. economy, it is not surprising that there are many investment opportunities. I was more interested in policy-related and technology-related issues. The technology front is advancing very fast, but the policy front is mired in politics. I would like to be more optimistic on the policy front, but unfortunately, the population is divided, and the politicians are responding to what they believe to be the views of those that can re-elect them. The two political parties are equally guilty.
On the following morning, I headed back to the Javits Convention Center for day two of the 3D Printing Conference. I was quite interested in the medical implications of 3D printing, and I was thrilled with what I learned.
BoardRounds helps hospitals transition patients from the hospital to in-network physicians, improving patient care and generating additional revenue. BoardRounds schedules follow-up appointments for patients with providers to ensure that proper follow-up occurs. A typical hospital can generate over $1M in additional in-network services and also improve its quality scores. BoardRounds is in use at Mount Sinai Hospital and negotiating with 5 hospital systems.
Decisive Health enables specialists to see more patients by improving the quality and efficiency of patient consultations. Decisive Health educates patients about recommended treatment options, predicts patient treatment preferences, and qualifies patients for procedures sooner. Clients include physicians at the Hospital for Special Surgery and Virginia Hospital Center.
ProofPilot makes it easy to design, launch, and manage complex research studies and clinical trials. With the ProofPilot platform, researchers launch studies four times faster and cut over 50% of costs. Current clients include NYU Langone, Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness, and the Huffington Post.
MediQuire helps hospitals measure and improve clinician performance. Their platform takes EHR data and compares clinicians to peers based on the quality of care they deliver. MediQuire then reduces performance gaps by delivering personalized education in the areas where clinicians need to improve most. Their platform allows hospitals to efficiently manage hundreds of new performance requirements, thereby avoiding penalties and reducing waste.
PulseBeat is home healthcare for the 21st century. PulseBeat offers family members peace of mind by remotely monitoring and caring for their aging loved one. They provide caregivers with real-time notifications and daily health report cards that provide a holistic view of their loved one’s health. Through partnerships with home healthcare companies, PulseBeat offers 24/7 access to a home care nurse or aide. They are working with the Visiting Nurse Association of Orange County, opening the door to thousands of potential customers in southern California.
RubiconMD helps primary care providers earn an additional $45k per year, by treating more specialty related cases. Over 40% of specialist referrals are unnecessary and could be treated by primary care providers. RubiconMD connects primary care providers with specialists for remote opinions. Provider networks see considerable cost savings. RubiconMD has 3 clients including Doctors Express Urgent Care Clinic, the largest urgent care network in the U.S.
Twiage is a mobile and web-based platform that provides secure, real¬time transfer of information and rich media from the ambulance to the ER. They improve pre-hospital communication between the ambulance and the ER, saving the average ER over $350k annually in false service activations alone. Twiage is working with a regional Level 2 trauma center with 90k ER visits a year and is negotiating with 5 clients to launch inQ2’14.
