For Immediate Release
What’s Next in Health Tech Presented at the New York Digital Health Accelerator Demo Day
Growth-Stage Companies Offer New Platforms for Simplifying Health Data and Improving Patient Care
New York, NY – January 24, 2017 Today, at the New York Digital Health Accelerator (NYDHA) demo day, six growth-stage health tech companies presented their cutting-edge health care solutions to an audience of health care providers, insurance companies and investors. The event marks the culmination of the five month program run by the Partnership Fund for New York City (Partnership Fund) and the New York eHealth Collaborative (NYeC), which bolsters New York’s growing health tech sector and encourages the development of innovative digital health tools. This year’s winners included: BMIQ, Diameter Health, eCaring, Healthify, Somatix, and Spring.
During the course of the program, the six companies worked with health care organizations to test and refine their products, while learning directly from their potential future customers on how best to improve their tools for delivering the highest quality of care to patients. Since its inception, the NYDHA has focused on incubating the technologies that will have the most impact on the industry, and was early to recognize the importance of connecting technology to providers who could offer appropriate scale. Companies are nominated and selected by health care providers and insurance companies to enter the program, and represent specific areas within the industry where there is an appetite for innovation. Now in its fourth year, the accelerator’s success is tied to the unique opportunity for participants to obtain direct access to major customers, including large hospital systems and insurance companies, and receive feedback from senior-level executives representing the leading health care providers in New York State.
“New York’s high concentration of health care providers makes it an ideal location to cultivate new health technology, especially as we see the aim of digital health products shift away from consumers and towards providers. The NYDHA is able to leverage willing mentors who provide insights on how new technology will actually be used day-to-day and are eager to help participants get their technology into the leading health care providers and insurance companies in the city,” said Maria Gotsch, President and CEO of the Partnership Fund. “By giving entrepreneurs the tools they need to scale their businesses, the companies flourish, recruit new talent, and expand their operations, resulting in the program becoming an incredible conduit for job creation in New York City.”
“We’re thrilled to celebrate our fourth NYDHA class and support the innovative companies who are providing new, cutting-edge solutions to help healthcare professionals meet the demands of the industry’s shift to value-based care,” said Valerie Grey, Executive Director for the New York eHealth Collaborative. “We’re proud to be a part of a program that contributes to New York State’s healthcare delivery system transformation and aims to help providers deliver better patient outcomes and reduce costs.”
The participating health care organizations include: Aetna, Allied Physicians, Central New York Health Home Network, Circare, Greater Buffalo United Accountable Healthcare Network, Healthfirst, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Montefiore Medical Center, Mount Sinai Health System, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, Northwell Health, NYU Langone Medical Center, Rochester Regional Health, Sachs Policy Group, SBH Health System, and Visiting Nurse Service of New York.
Additional mentorship was provided by a syndicate of leading health care investors including: Deerfield Management, Milestone Venture Partners, New Leaf Venture Partners, Partnership Fund for New York City and Safeguard Scientifics.
The 2016 Class includes:
BMIQ delivers evidence-based dietary and behavioral interventions for diabetes prevention. BMIQ utilizes a combination of in office or telehealth-based counseling, as well as web-based support between visits to effectively impact positive lifestyle change.
Diameter Health enables better clinical insights through the normalization, cleansing, de-duplication and enrichment of medical data from across the care continuum. This provides for the creation of a single, unified source of longitudinal structured patient information which can be the basis for improved care and actionable analytics.
eCaring is a comprehensive home care management solution that provides actionable, real time healthcare information from the home. Their system enables home care workers, patients and caregivers, regardless of their computer skills or language literacy, to enter data regarding physical and mental state, vital signs, critical behaviors and activities, medication adherence and care plan compliance.
Healthify connects vulnerable patients to the social services they need. Their web platform helps large health care organizations find services in a community, track referrals to services and coordinate with community partners.
Somatix is a behavioral modification software platform, utilizing interventions based on big data analysis and real time detection of hand-to-mouth gestures using standard wearables. Its first product, SmokeBeat, is addressing the global smoking cessation market; its customers include corporate employers, health insurance companies and clinics.
Spring improves behavioral health outcomes by using machine learning to personalize patient care. Based on peer-reviewed and published research in leading journals, Spring’s technology analyzes clinical data and provides clinicians with patient-specific treatment recommendations and information that enables exceptional care.
Since its inception, the NYDHA program has demonstrated significant success, both for participants and the New York economy. The program’s 21 previous participants have gone on to launch 39 pilots with providers in the network, create over 160 high-tech jobs in New York, and raise a total of $230 million post-program. Two of the program’s past participants, Avado and Remedy Systems, were also acquired within six months of completing the program.
The Partnership Fund and NYeC designed the unique program to cultivate the development of health information technology in New York, leveraging both the burgeoning tech sector and its extensive concentration of financial and health care organizations. The Partnership Fund has historically been a strong supporter of entrepreneurial businesses that promote economic development in New York. At the same time, NYeC has built relationships with a broad cross-section of health care organizations by coordinating the development of New York State’s health information exchange, the Statewide Health Information Network for New York (SHIN-NY), and by helping health care providers embrace and implement new technologies. By partnering, the two organizations are able to foster technological innovation in the health care sector.
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About the New York Digital Health Accelerator (NYDHA):
The NYDHA is a program run by the Partnership Fund for New York City and the New York eHealth Collaborative for growth-stage companies that are developing cutting edge IT solutions in care coordination, patient engagement, behavioral health tech, population health and telehealth. The five-month program is unique in that entrepreneur participants are selected by the NYDHA mentor network—leading health care provider and payer organizations from New York state. Their senior level executives—along with our strategic investor syndicate and entrepreneurs-in-residence—provide participants with product feedback and mentoring.
About the Partnership Fund for New York City (The Fund):
The Partnership Fund for New York City is the $150 million investment arm of the Partnership for New York City, New York’s leading business organization. The Fund’s mission is to engage the City’s business leaders to identify and support promising NYC-based entrepreneurs in both the for-profit and non-profit sectors to create jobs, spur new business and expand opportunities for New Yorkers to participate in the City’s economy. The Fund is governed by a Board of Directors co-chaired by Charles “Chip” Kaye, co-chief executive officer of Warburg Pincus, and Tarek Sherif, Chairman and CEO of Medidata. Maria Gotsch serves as President and CEO of the Fund. More information about the Fund can be found at www.pfnyc.org.
About the New York eHealth Collaborative (NYeC):
NYeC is a not-for-profit organization, working in partnership with the New York State Department of Health to improve healthcare for all New Yorkers through health information technology (health IT). Founded in 2006 by healthcare leaders, NYeC works to help New York State achieve the Triple Aim by developing policies and standards that support the utilization of health IT, assisting healthcare providers in adopting and effectively using electronic health records (EHRs), and coordinating the development of the Statewide Health Information Network for New York (SHIN-NY), a network to connect healthcare providers statewide. For more information about NYeC, visit www.nyehealth.org.
Media Contacts:
Partnership Fund/Rubenstein Communications
Katy Feinberg, 212-843-8047
NYeC
Jesse Giuliani, 646-619-6756