PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 22, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Some of the most promising startup teams in healthtech will pitch their companies to an audience of several hundred investors, industry leaders and potential customers at DreamIt Health Philadelphia Demo Day (#DreamItHealth) on Thursday, October 30 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at World Cafe Live in Philadelphia.
These teams have spent the last four months participating in the DreamIt Health Philadelphia 2014 accelerator program, where they've received hands-on support and resources to develop their ideas into scalable companies with high-growth potential. At Demo Day, each team will have seven minutes to share their progress and present key business milestones and plans for future growth.
DreamIt Ventures, Independence Blue Cross (Independence) and Penn Medicine jointly selected the participating companies based on the strength of their teams and the significance of the challenges they are addressing within the healthcare sector. Attendees will get an inside peek at how these teams are developing new approaches to solving these challenges in ways that have not been done previously.
"At Independence we believe that it's vital to invest our energy, expertise and other resources to help these promising startups find solutions to our health care system's most pressing challenges," said Independence President and CEO Daniel J. Hilferty. "Philadelphia has all the right components to become a national magnet for healthcare innovation, and we are proud to be driving change and creating powerful partnerships to lead the transformation of care. Through this unique joint venture, we've already brought several promising young companies to Philadelphia and we look forward to seeing the results of this year's program come to life at Demo Day."
"As Penn Medicine continues its support of this collaborative effort, we are encouraged by many of these initiatives and their potential for new products and services that provide benefit to patient care and health care delivery," said Ralph Muller, CEO of the University of Pennsylvania Health System. "By sharing our expertise with these creative entrepreneurs, we are fostering the growth of projects seeking solutions to challenges in our industry."
Each team participating in DreamIt Health received:
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$50,000 in seed capital
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Coaching by hand-selected mentors individually matched with each company
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An intense curriculum at the intersection of healthcare, business, technology and design
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Free workspace at the DreamIt Headquarters at the Innovation Center @3401 (ic@3401) on the campus of the University City Science Center in Philadelphia
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Donated legal counsel from several leading law firms including Cozen O'Connor, Duane Morris, Morgan Lewis and Pepper Hamilton
- Access to people, resources, data and implementation opportunities across leading healthcare organizations, which are typically out of reach to startups
The DreamIt Health Philadelphia 2014 participating companies are:
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BioBots offers plug and play desktop 3D bioprinters that enable users to easily create functional biological structures, whether they're a researcher on the frontier of regenerative medicine, a high school student or somewhere in between. (Philadelphia, PA)
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Drop Diagnostics enables rapid mobile disease detection using only a drop of blood. (Philadelphia, PA)
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NarrativeDx provides healthcare administrators and clinicians with actionable insights from patient experiences to improve care and reduce the risk of losing millions of dollars in reimbursements. (Austin, TX)
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RegDeskconnects mobile health, medical device and biopharma companies with the largest global network of on-demand compliance experts, eliminating delays and expense in launching their products. (Bear, DE)
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RistCall helps hospitals improve patient safety and satisfaction scores by replacing traditional wall mounted nurse call bell systems with wearable, connected devices. (Pittsburgh, PA)
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Tissue Analytics turns the common smartphone into a sophisticated medical imaging and diagnostic platform for chronic wounds. (Baltimore, MD)
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TowerView Health offers payers and other risk-bearing entities a service that improves patient adherence to multiple medications using a next-generation connected pillbox. (Chicago, IL/Houston, TX/Washington, DC/San Francisco, CA)
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TrueClaim helps health plans engage their members to substantiate claims and prevent billing errors, waste, fraud and abuse. (Philadelphia, PA/Jacksonville, FL)
- Willseeyou's predictive scheduling software helps clinics boost their bottom line by booking more appointments, reducing inefficiencies and improving the patient experience. (Philadelphia, PA)
Additionally, two companies born out of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) are participating in DreamIt Health through DreamIt's Open Canvas@CHOP program. DreamIt partnered with CHOP to identify innovative ideas from its employees and incubate them alongside the rest of the companies in the accelerator program. This model sets an example of how large organizations can learn from the startup world to leverage internal innovations and bring them to life. The Open Canvas@CHOP companies are:
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Haystack develops analytics and monitoring solutions that help hospitals detect, investigate, and report patient privacy breaches by insiders, so that they can fulfill the promise of privacy for all patients. (Philadelphia, PA)
- 3D Peds is currently operating in stealth mode. (Philadelphia, PA)
About DreamIt Ventures
DreamIt Ventures uniquely combines a startup accelerator program and an early stage seed fund to provide exceptional entrepreneurs with the funding, mentorship and support they need to build thriving, fundable companies. During their three or four months in DreamIt, companies identify and eliminate risks, build out their products, focus on customer acquisition and establish paths to building sustainable revenues. DreamIt's difference is the intense amount of coaching and support the companies receive from hand-selected and dedicated mentors, the DreamIt Partners, DreamIt alumni companies and office hours with prominent VC firms.
DreamIt runs accelerator programs in major cities such as New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Austin. Since 2008, DreamIt has helped launch over 150 companies which have gone on to raise more than $175 million in follow-on funding, including Adaptly, LevelUp, Parsely, SeatGeek, MindSnacks, SnipSnap, Peeractive, TrendKite and Biomeme. DreamIt's headquarters is located in Philadelphia at the Innovation Center @3401, a collaboration between the University City Science Center and Drexel University. Learn more at www.dreamitventures.com and on Twitter at@DreamItVentures.
About Independence Blue Cross
Independence Blue Cross is the leading health insurer in southeastern Pennsylvania. With our affiliates, we serve more than 9 million people in 24 states and the District of Columbia. For more than 75 years, we have been enhancing the health and wellness of the people and communities we serve by delivering innovative and competitively priced health care products and services; pioneering new ways to reward doctors, hospitals and other healthcare professionals for coordinated, quality care; and supporting programs and events that promote wellness. To learn more about how we're changing the game, visit www.ibx.com. Connect with us on Facebook at ibx.com/facebook and on Twitter at @ibx. Independence Blue Cross is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.
About Penn Medicine
Penn Medicine is one of the world's leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and excellence in patient care. Penn Medicine consists of the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (founded in 1765 as the nation's first medical school) and the University of Pennsylvania Health System, which together form a $4.3 billion enterprise. The Perelman School of Medicine has been ranked among the top five medical schools in the United States for the past 16 years, according to U.S. News & World Report's survey of research-oriented medical schools. The School is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $398 million awarded in the 2012 fiscal year. Penn Medicine is committed to improving lives and health through a variety of community-based programs and activities. In fiscal year 2012, Penn Medicine provided $827 million to benefit our community.