U.S. CTO Aneesh Chopra, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and OrganizedWisdom Announce StartUp Health

NEW YORK, NY and WASHINGTON, DC--(Marketwire - Jun 9, 2011) - Today, at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Institute of Medicine's (IOM) Health Data Initiative Forum, U.S. Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra and OrganizedWisdom announced StartUp Health, a strategic initiative designed to improve access to capital, education and resources for health and wellness entrepreneurs. Chaired by former Chairman and CEO of Time Warner Inc. and current Director of OrganizedWisdom Jerry Levin, StartUp Health aims to close the Health Gap between entrepreneurs, private investors, corporations, universities, foundations and other stakeholders committed to accelerating meaningful health and wellness innovation.

StartUp Health also announced today that it will join the Startup America Partnership, a private sector initiative working in conjunction with the White House to celebrate, inspire, and accelerate high-growth entrepreneurship throughout the nation.

StartUp Health's goal is to help entrepreneurs create, fund and build sustainable health and wellness companies by improving access to:

• Long-term support, guidance and mentoring
• Data, technology, tools and other required resources
• Sector-specific investors and stage-appropriate capital
• A collaborative community of like-minded people and organizations
• A talent pool of people dedicated to meaningful innovation in health and wellness

"StartUp Health has a long-term vision of what needs to happen to help foster a vibrant health and wellness system in this country by energizing entrepreneurs," said Jerry Levin. "By building a detailed roadmap for health and wellness entrepreneurs, we aim to provide access to everything and everyone they need to significantly increase their chances of creating a sustainable business. Any entrepreneur who dreams of meaningful innovation in health and wellness deserves access to this roadmap and the critical resources that can reduce the barriers to success, and we intend on making sure that happens."

"I'm honored to participate in the HHS and IOM's Health Data Initiative Forum to share in the exciting announcement of StartUp Health, the latest Startup America Partnership collaborator to unleash new market opportunities with the launch of the StartUp Health Roundtables and the StartUp Health Pledge initiatives," said Aneesh Chopra.

StartUp Health Roundtables
The first initiative for StartUp Health will produce a series of StartUp Health Roundtables, hosted in partnership with organizations like the Startup America Partnership and HHS, to bring together entrepreneurs, investors and organizations to discuss the unique challenges and opportunities in developing a roadmap for health and wellness startups.

The first StartUp Health Roundtable will take place in New York City on July 13th, 2011 and will be moderated by Startup America Partnership CEO Scott Case. The Roundtable will also be broadcast live over the web and viewers will be able to email and tweet their questions for participants. The second StartUp Health Roundtable, called DC to VC, will be hosted by HHS CTO Todd Park and will focus on creating targeted engagements between senior administration officials and entrepreneurs, investors and students. For those interested in requesting an invitation to one of the StartUp Health Roundtables, please visit startuphealth.com for more information.

"Driving American entrepreneurship is critical to creating jobs and sustaining our nation's global leadership," said Scott Case, CEO of the Startup America Partnership. "The health and wellness sector is full of entrepreneurs creating innovative new companies, and we are thrilled to host the StartUp Health Roundtable to encourage and support the growth of scalable companies in this industry."

The StartUp Health Pledge
The second initiative, called TheStartUp Health Pledge, has been developed to demonstrate the commitment of those participating in the health and wellness startup ecosystem as an entrepreneur, mentor, investor, business or organization to help elevate the standard of care in America.

"By creating the pledge, we will begin to connect the dots and organize all of the like-minded people and resources dedicated to transforming health and wellness," said Steven Krein, CEO of OrganizedWisdom. The initial entrepreneurs, investors, corporations and government agencies that have pledged their commitment to encourage and participate in the health and wellness ecosystem include U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Startup America Partnership, OrganizedWisdom, Jerry Levin, entrepreneur and philanthropist Esther Dyson, Digitas Health Co-founder Linda Holliday, Health 2.0 co-founders Matthew Holt and Indu Subaiya, and health technology startup accelerators Rock Health and Blueprint Health.

One of the most inspiring examples of a government agency that has visibly pledged its commitment to the health and wellness startup ecosystem is the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. HHS, under the leadership of Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has been focused for the last year on accelerating the use of publicly available health data through HealthData.gov.

"Encouraging entrepreneurship in health and wellness is a key priority of HHS, which is why we've opened up vast amounts of federal consumer health data for public use," said Todd Park. "We hope that others will take the StartUp Health Pledge to help accelerate momentum for innovation and entrepreneurship to improve health and wellness for millions of Americans."

For more information on the StartUp Health, the schedule of StartUp Health Roundtables or to take the StartUp Health Pledge, please visit startuphealth.com.

About StartUp Health
StartUp Health is a strategic initiative started by OrganizedWisdom to inspire, educate, and provide resources for entrepreneurs to build sustainable health and wellness companies. StartUp Health aims to close the "Health Gap" between entrepreneurs, private investors, corporations, universities, foundations and other stakeholders committed to accelerating meaningful health and wellness innovation. Learn more at startuphealth.com or @startuphealth on twitter.

About OrganizedWisdom
OrganizedWisdom, founded in 2007 in New York City, is on a mission to close the "Health Gap" by inspiring doctors and health experts to leverage new technologies to elevate the standard of care in America. The company provides a mobile toolbox for health experts designed to help people before, during and after a doctor visit and offers people access to free expert health alerts on any health and wellness topic. OrganizedWisdom's investors include leading health, technology, and business minds: Esther Dyson, Roger Ehrenberg, Jason Finger, Linda Holliday, Jerry Levin, Jeff Stewart and Artists and Instigators Ventures. Learn more at organizedwisdom.com.