The University Science Center’s Digital Health Accelerator (DHA) has announced its third class of seven digital health startups. From flushable pregnancy tests, remote patient monitoring systems, augmented reality to prepare for emergency situations – these are among the focus of the seven technologies being developed by the third class of startups.
Each startup selected to the 12-month digital health accelerator will receive up to $50k in funding, professional mentorship, and networking opportunities with a variety of key healthcare stakeholders including insurers, pharmaceutical companies, hospitals and research institutions located in the Greater Philadelphia region.
In additon, these early-stage companies will also receive membership at ic@3401—a partnership between the Science Center and Drexel University, in collaboration with Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania and Safeguard Scientifics.
To date, the 13 companies in the first two classes of the DHA have gone from prototype to commercialization, creating over 160 new jobs, generating over $21 million in revenue, and raising more than $21 million in follow-on investment.
Here is a look at University City Science Center’s Digital Health Accelerator latest class of 7 startups:
CareCierge is a high-tech/high-touch benefit for employees who struggle to balance work while caring for an ill or aging loved one. CareCierge empowers employee caregivers with a personalized roadmap for care coordination and a trusted advisor to talk to, thereby reducing the lost productivity and increased healthcare expenditure that costs US Businesses $47 Billion/year.
ImmERge Labs uses virtual and augmented reality to reimagine how the world prepares for emergency situations. Using disruptive technologies to improve critical skills, ImmERge Labs transforms bystanders into rescuers through applications that integrate a physical manikin with highly realistic, multi-sensory simulations that technically, emotionally, and mentally prepare one to render life-saving interventions.
LIA Diagnostics is the first-ever, flushable and biodegradable pregnancy test. Lia uses innovative materials and unique manufacturing to provide women with a discreet, battery-and-plastic-free alternative. Through DHA, Lia is planning to develop a digital application that will help facilitate purchases, further develop the Lia brand, and provide post-test education.
PainQx is a diagnostic/software company that has developed a next-generation approach to objectively measure pain in humans. The PainQx platform achieves this by assessing neural activity from a patient’s brain and processing and decoding the data through its proprietary algorithms. The output is a pain biomarker that is directly correlated to a patient’s pain state. The PainQx system is currently being used as a clinical assessment tool by companies using pain as an endpoint to measure their drug’s and device’s efficacy.
RegDesk helps MedTech and PharmBio companies get their regulatory and reimbursement strategies right the first time. Using machine learning and the largest global network of compliance experts, RegDesk clients obtain reliable product-specific regulatory, reimbursement and market access insights globally, allowing for faster access to market, with reduced risk and lower cost.
repisodic enables hospitals and their patients to find high-quality, personalized post-acute care by offering the most comprehensive picture of these providers available anywhere – online for free. The repisodic platform connects post-acute care providers with discharging hospitals, patients, and their families to coordinate care and improve outcomes.
Semacare is a deep machine learning artificial intelligence platform that improves health outcomes by allowing for earlier diagnosis of serious heart conditions. Semacare’s cloud platform and portable clinical-grade ECG and Pulse Oximeter provides data for early heart failure and stroke prevention diagnosis, and monitoring Q-T prolongation (the key indicator of a heart condition that causes sudden death).
Launched in 2014 by the Science Center, the DHA supports early-stage digital health companies with funding, office space, professional mentorship and introductions to key healthcare stakeholders in the Greater Philadelphia region. The DHA has received support from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Department of Community and Economic Development and the U.S. Small Business Administration Growth Accelerator Fund.
