Calling Health Tech Companies: GuideWell is Seeking Solutions against COVID-19

GuideWell has launched the COVID-19 Health Innovation Collaborative to identify and support solutions that can immediately increase the scope and scale of resources aimed at reducing the complex stress factors COVID-19 is bringing to bear on the U.S. health system.

There will be five categories of focus under this collaborative, and proposed solutions must directly address at least one of these categories:

●     Home based self-testing solutions for the COVID-19 virus

●     Virtual, in-home care solutions for at-risk populations that have limited access to health care services

●     Solutions that reduce risk for health care providers in clinical settings, including approaches for increasing protection of clinical staff

●     Solutions focused on reducing social isolation due to COVID-19 diagnosis or social distancing

●     Solutions for delivering food and urgently needed supplies to at-risk populations and households with COVID-19 exposure or symptoms

The COVID-19 Collaborative’s overarching objective is to source a diverse portfolio of innovative companies that collectively have the potential to respond to the pandemic in the above categories. For each category, a cohort of 3-5 companies will be selected to work together to create a connected, high impact approach to addressing the program category.

If you are an innovator, health tech entrepreneur or researcher with a solution in response to #COVID19, apply today!

Deadline to apply: May 8th, 2020.

AI, DTx at the Forefront in 2020 & More News

Digital Health Experts Needed for International Forum

The IDIH Project (International Digital Health Cooperation for Preventive, Integrated, Independent and Inclusive Living) is seeking digital health experts who are interested in collaborating on a sustainable platform for international cooperation in digital health. IDIH is a project funded under the European Union Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme, bringing together prominent organizations from EU and five Strategic Partner Countries (Canada, China, Japan, South Korea and the USA) to promote and increase international collaboration, advance digital health, and support active and healthy aging through innovation. 

IDIH is looking for individuals whose expertise is in alignment with the following focus areas: preventative care, integrated care, independent and connected living, and inclusive living. 

If you would like to be a part of our expert driven Digital Health Transformation Forum, please send your CV with a short explanation on why you are interested in becoming an Expert Group member or Chair to experts@idih-global.eu by January 31st, 2020. 

Act fast—experts are chosen on a rolling basis!

Digital Therapeutics Expected to Advance Despite Recent Losses 

Despite the recent string of failed collaborations between digital therapeutics (DTx) and pharmaceutical companies, the DTx sector is predicted to grow in the coming year. Richard Close, an analyst at Canaccord Genuity, suggests that key players in the health care arena are attuned to the benefits of DTx solutions for treating patients. One such player is Express Scripts, the largest independent manager of pharmacy benefits in the U.S., whose formulary highlights vetted DTx offerings from companies like Livongo, WellDoc, SilverCloud Health, and Learn to Live. Though consumers are still waiting for clinical validation of DTx through the pharma partnerships, both DTx developers and key care management stakeholders remain optimistic about the value of DTx for clinical uses. 

“Re-Humanization” of Medicine through AI

A report from the social-listening platform Digimind reveals that adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) will continue to be a priority for health care and technology sectors in 2020. The boom of value-based care and patient centric models of operation showcase a desire to “re-humanize” medicine—allowing practitioners to spend more time with the patient and less with paperwork. In recent years, the development of AI and ML has been focused on their ability to make accurate interpretations of diagnostic screenings and to extract key data from patient records. The digital health space can expect to see further development of AI’s medical sensitivity and accuracy to maximize output at the lowest cost. 

New GuideWell Innovation Scale Up Accelerator Program

GuideWell Innovation, in collaboration with Springboard Enterprises, is hosting an exciting new 10-week Scale Up Accelerator program for women-founded health tech companies (or those with at least one female key executive) located in the Southeastern US (FL, GA, AL, MS, LA, NC, SC, KY, TN). Because both women-led startups and the South East are lagging in access and closure of venture capital, this unique cohort is dedicated to accelerating the growth and financing of companies within these demographics.

The program will run from Jun 26th – Aug 30th and includes a kickoff boot camp (June 26th – 28th) at the GuideWell Innovation Center in Orlando, FL. Most of the program will be conducted virtually other than the 3-day kickoff boot camp and a innovator/investor matchmaking showcase at the end of August. During weeks 2-9, the cohort companies will be matched with various advisors and are expected to connect with advisors every week. In addition, each week will incorporate a virtual 2-hour workshop/collaboration session led by subject matter experts on key challenge topics faced by most early-stage health tech companies.

Required criteria for the cohort:

• Company must be a health, wellness or medical device technology company that addresses critical gaps in providing affordable, accessible health care or holistic health/wellness solutions for diverse populations and communities in the United States

• Life sciences companies are NOT eligible for this cohort

• Women founders or key executives must own a minimum of 25% of the company’s equity

• The company must be headquartered and have a minimum of 50% of its staff located in the Southeastern US (FL, GA, AL, MS, LA, NC, SC, TN, KY)

• Can show proof of “Scale Up” traction through revenues, capital raised, customer acquisition, and product development (see below)

• Addressing a huge market opportunity in the U.S. healthcare, holistic health or wellness industry

Scale Up traction:

Eligible companies must meet GuideWell’s minimum “Scale Up” requirements. A Scale Up company is a growing technology startup with verifiable traction in its chosen marketplace. Traction may be different based on the company’s chosen market, but is typically demonstrated by one or more of the following:

• A minimum of $500,000 in revenues

• A minimum of $500,000 in seed capital raised

• Patents in place for unique digital innovation or medical devices

• FDA approval process underway for products requiring FDA approval

• Verifiable (reference required) customer pilots

• Accelerating product adoption (especially for consumer-focused solutions)

GuideWell is partnering with Springboard Enterprises, a nationally recognized accelerator for women-led, high growth, scalable businesses. Since launching its first program in 2000, Springboard has worked with 735 women who have raised $8.5B in capital and drove companies to 17 IPOs and 185 M&A exits. They bring forward a deep, highly experienced mentor network to help support this cohort and provide incredible industry expertise.

Act quickly! The deadline to apply is Friday May 31st 2019. Program details and the online application portal are available at: https://guidewellinnovation.com/guidewell-scale-up-accelerator/.

Lyft Expanding Discount Grocery Rides to Multiple Cities Across US and Canada

Millions of Americans across the country do not have adequate access to healthy foods. For example, those living in low income neighbourhoods, communities of color, and rural areas often do not have a nearby supermarket stocked with nutritious, affordable, and high quality foods. In an effort to remove such transportation barriers, Lyft will be expanding its Grocery Access Program to more than a dozen cities in the US and Canada over the next year. The ride-share platform will be partnering with local organizations and nonprofits to provide low-income families in food deserts with discounted rides to the grocery store.

The expansion of the program helps Lyft maintain a competitive edge over its rival Uber in healthcare. Lyft’s Concierge service, which gives hospital administrators the ability to book NEMT for patients, came out two years ahead of Uber’s similar service, UberHealth. Now Lyft has once again gained a first mover advantage by being the first to roll out a grocery service. With payers seeking to mitigate costs associated with poor nutrition, we can see Lyft forging crucial partnerships and leveraging its platform to treat the growing health inequity in the US.

Announcing the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Social Determinants of Health and Home & Community Based Care Innovation Challenges

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) has partnered with Catalyst @ Health 2.0 to launch two innovation challenges on Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) and Home & Community Based Care. As a national leader in building a culture of health, RWJF is inspiring and identifying novel digital solutions to tackle health through an unconventional lens.

Health starts with where we live. As noted in Healthy People 2020 social determinants of health are, “conditions in the environments in which people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age... [that] affect a wide range of health functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risks.” For example, children who live in an unsafe area cannot play outside making it more difficult for them to have adequate exercise. Differences in SDoH heavily influences communities’ well-being and results in very different opportunities for people to be healthy.

Despite our knowledge on SDoH, the current healthcare system utilizes care models that often fail to take into account the social and economic landscape of communities-- neglecting factors such as housing, education, food security, income, community resources, transportation and discrimination. Little progress has been made on incorporating SDoH into established health care frameworks. Healthcare providers and patients alike either have limited understanding of SDoH or have limited opportunities to utilize SDoH knowledge. RWJF established the “Social Determinants of Health Innovation Challenge” to find novel digital solutions that can help providers and/or patients connect to health services related to SDoH.

Home and community-based care is also important to enable Americans to live the healthiest lives possible. In-patient and long-term institutional care can be uncomfortable, costly, and inefficient. Digital health solutions in the home and community offer opportunities for care that better suit the patient and their loved ones. For example, innovations such as remote patient monitoring (RPM) have created new care models that allow the providers, caregivers, and patients to manage care where a person is most comfortable. RPM serves as a reminder that technologies in the home and community offer alternatives methods to engage the patient, increase access to care, and receive ongoing care. Therefore, RWJF is launching the “Home & Community-Based Care Challenge,” to encourage developers to create solutions that support the advancement of at-home or community-based health care.

The ultimate goal of both challenges is to foster innovations that help people live healthier lives and promote healthier, more equitable communities.

The challenges have two phases. In Phase I, innovators submit tech-enabled solutions addressing the challenge topic. Judges will evaluate the entries and the top five teams who will move onto Phase II. The five semi-finalists will be awarded $5,000 each to further develop their application or tool. Three finalists will be chosen at the end of Phase II to compete at a pitch event! They will demo their technology in front of a captivated audience of investors, provider organizations, and members of the media at a prominent health conference. Judges will select the first, second, and third place winners live. The grand prize winner will be awarded $40,000 for first place, $25,000 for second place, and $10,000 for third place.

With $100,000 in total prizes for each challenge and a number of promotional activities, we strongly encourage innovators to pre-register for the challenges and be notified when the applications open.

Check out the challenge websites below to learn more and make sure to pre-register for the RWJF Social Determinants of Health Innovation Challenge and/or the RWJF Home & Community Based Care Challenge to be notified when applications open on April 29th and submit your digital solution by June 7th.

To learn more about the Social Determinants of Health Innovation Challenge, click here. To pre-register for the challenge and receive the latest updates, click here.

To learn more about the Home & Community-Based Care Challenge, click here. To pre-register for the challenge and receive the latest updates, click here.

Healthcare Executives Under Threat of Business Model Disruption

Healthcare executives are increasingly worried about business model disruption due to the influx of new entrants, processes, and technologies into the healthcare industry. According to Change Healthcare’s 9th Annual Industry Pulse Survey, 13.3% of 185 healthcare leaders believe that innovations in care delivery will lead to potential advancement within the industry and 11.1% believe that refinement of customer experience will create disruptive change. Other potential disruptors include supply chain innovations (9%), launch of vertical one-stop healthcare companies (8%), and advances in artificial capabilities (7%). However, the survey findings also suggest that healthcare leaders are increasingly embracing healthcare technologies. Thirty percent of leaders indicate that EHRs are their leading source of clinical data and another 30% of respondents say that analytics are “extremely effective” or “very effective” at increasing workflow productivity.

Health systems are also jumping into the digital age, with patients portals employed by 73% and telehealth solutions employed by 54% of all surveyed respondents. Twenty percent of respondents indicate they currently use machine learning and 51% plan to employ the technology in the future. Interestingly, the survey reveals a marked lack of attention toward cybersecurity. Even while 40% of healthcare leaders see cybercrime as a potential risk, 38% answered that there are “too many competing priorities” to warrant the level of attention that cybersecurity needs. Nevertheless, the threat of disruption has charged healthcare leaders to intensify its commitment to combating new market entrants.