Skeptics of patient empowerment would be advised to tune into the real-time dashboard of Twine Health, which will be demonstrated for the first time publicly at HealthBeat, October 27-28.
The cloud-based platform is designed to put some of the management of chronic disease in the hands of patients. It’s based on a coaching model that sees the patient as apprentice in their own health care. With clinicians and patients working together using synchronized apps, they create plans to reach important health goals decided on together.
The push to provide minute-by-minute patient monitoring may seem excessive at first hearing, but the impact both on patient management and patient outcomes can be significant.
In a typical hospital, patients are checked about every 4-8 hours. In an acute care situation it may be more frequent, but the truth is that nurses aren’t always available to give patients the attention they need — and sometimes these patients can become quite ill as a result.
If you’re hoping to provide home care for a sick or elderly family member, startup CareZapp is building a technology platform to help.
The company just announced its public beta on-stage as part of the Startup Battlefield at Disrupt Europe. Co-founder and CEO Andrew Macfarlane told me that his interest in the field began with his mother’s death from cancer more than two decades ago, and the “challenges and difficulties” that he faced in providing for her care. Understandably, he didn’t go into too many details, but he did suggest that not much about the industry has changed since then.
ZipLine Medical announced today that it has closed a $5.7 million extension to its Series C financing, which was announced on Jan. 21, 2014. The financing extension was led by new investor China Materialia LLC, a Shanghai, China-based, venture capital company.
Healthcare is arguably the only major industry in the world that hasn’t embraced automation — and it shows.
According to CMS, the annual U.S. spend on healthcare is nearly three trillion dollars (more than 17 percent of GDP), and yet the World Health Organization ranks our healthcare system below almost every other industrialized nation in the world. Despite all the money being spent, there is still pervasive inefficiency and frustration, with minimal relative value to the patient.
OcuSciences, an Ann Arbor, MI-based medical device startup spun out of technology developed at the University of Michigan, has been named the “innovator of the year” by Medical Main Street, an initiative to establish Oakland County as a center of innovation in medical research and development, education, and commercialization.
Only 5.8% of the student population is enrolled in the Pharmacy, Nursing and Health Sciences programs at Purdue University, but healthcare startups make up half of the university’s new Startup Class of 2014. Twelve of this year’s 24 class members are working on healthcare challenges. Doctoral students, professors, and engineers are using technology licensed from the university to bring personalized medicine closer to reality, help people with autism and Parkinson’s communicate more easily, and create 3D maps of arteries.
You’ve got a fitness tracker on your wrist and a phone loaded with health apps in your pocket. You know all about the latest technology that can help you stay—or get—in shape, and you’re pretty sure you know all the names of the biggest startups (and giant companies like Nike) trying to sell you new apps or gadgets.
There are plenty of startups springing up to offer same-day telemedicine services, many using video on mobile devices. And Google is getting into the game, too.
But there may be room for everyone, because the services are addressing a huge market. In 2013, the average wait time for a family physician was 19.5 days, with same-day appointments practically unattainable without an emergency room visit. And studies show that wait time is increasing.
