PHILADELPHIA, July 24, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Independence Blue Cross (IBC), Penn Medicine , and DreamIt Ventures today host "Demo Day" for 10 health care startup companies selected to participate in DreamIt Health, the first-ever Philadelphia-based health care accelerator. The event will be held from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at World Café Live! at 3025 Walnut Street in Philadelphia. The participants will each have seven minutes to present their business plans to potential investors and customers, mentors, and health care executives. Demo Day events are ideal opportunities for startups to begin raising money to launch their businesses and gauge interest among key audiences.
"As health care undergoes dramatic change, I believe that the health care companies that thrive will be those with a clear vision that move rapidly and innovate. The caliber of this group of entrepreneurs and the diverse health care companies they represent is very promising and we're pleased to have played a part in helping them plan, develop, and now present their ideas," said Daniel J. Hilferty, president and CEO of IBC. "We are committed to transforming our region into a magnet for health care innovation, investment and employment, and supporting bright, new ideas like those we nurtured through DreamItHealth will help us get there faster."
"The companies we're seeing at Demo Day are debuting some of the best and brightest solutions that will shape the future of health care's business model," noted Ralph Muller, CEO of University of Pennsylvania Health System. "Innovation in health care is essential to our ability to provide patients with the most advanced treatments available, so we're excited to see such a high level of prowess from these startups."
The 10 companies began a four-month boot camp on April 8 to rapidly advance the development of their innovative health care solutions and business models. Sponsored by IBC and Penn Medicine, DreamIt Health launched in December 2012 with a nationwide search for unique health care startups that apply technology to the challenges of keeping people healthy and providing more effective and affordable care.
The program sponsors selected the 10 participating companies based on the proven business skills of their founders and their entrepreneurial passion, and the level of innovation in their products or services.
Each startup received a stipend of up to $50,000, workspace at Venturef0rth in Philadelphia, and in-depth mentoring and coaching from experienced entrepreneurs and health care executives to help develop their products. The class will graduate on August 9, 2013.
The companies participating in Demo Day are:
- AirCare helps hospitals prevent readmissions and improve patient outcomes through tele-nursing, remote monitoring, and patient-specific analytics.
- Biomeme transforms a smartphone into a convenient, low-cost lab for quick DNA diagnostics and on-site disease tracking with instant connectivity.
- Fitly provides busy people with a free and convenient delivery service of healthy ingredients, meal planning, and simple prepping instructions straight to the workplace, school or community.
- Grand Round Table is an EHR-based decision support tool that helps clinicians benefit from the wisdom of the whole health system at the point of care. By pattern matching their cases against a database of millions of de-identified health records, case reports, and medical publications, clinicians using GRT can arrive at the right treatment plan more efficiently.
- Lucidity Health brings price transparency to the point of order for drugs, labs, and imaging to help providers, payers, and patients save money.
- Medlio is creating a virtual health insurance card. The smart phone app provides healthcare cost transparency for patients and helps physicians and other health professionals collect patient responsible balances, which is critical to the doctor's financial sustainability.
- Osmosis is a web- and mobile- educational platform that helps clinicians discover, learn, and retain medical information more efficiently.
- Seratis (divlan) is a mobile communication platform bringing physicians and other health care professionals out of the pager era and leverages smartphone capabilities to coordinate, track and analyze care across the health care team.
- SpeSo Health is an online platform that connects the 30 million patients with rare and orphan diseases with the care providers who are experts for those complex, high-cost conditions.
- Stat provides a platform for any patient, caretaker or healthcare organization, such as a hospital, to quickly and easily request nearby idle EMS services.
"Demo Day is the capstone of the accelerator program, an opportunity to peel back the wraps on what they've accomplished to date and their roadmap for the future before a select audience of potential investors, partners and customers," said Elliot Menschik, Managing Director of DreamIt Health.
Supporting sponsors of DreamIt Health include Towers Watson, a leading global professional services company, accounting firm EisnerAmper, and law firms, Morgan Lewis, Cozen O'Connor and Pepper Hamilton.
About Independence Blue Cross
Proudly celebrating its 75th anniversary in 2013, Independence Blue Cross is the leading health insurer in southeastern Pennsylvania. With our affiliates, we serve more than seven million people nationwide. We are 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 health care 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 is currently ranked #2 in 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 $479.3 million awarded in the 2011 fiscal year.
The University of Pennsylvania Health System's patient care facilities include: The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania — recognized as one of the nation's top "Honor Roll" hospitals by U.S. News & World Report; Penn Presbyterian Medical Center; and Pennsylvania Hospital — the nation's first hospital, founded in 1751. Penn Medicine also includes additional patient care facilities and services throughout the Philadelphia region. Penn Medicine is committed to improving lives and health through a variety of community-based programs and activities. In fiscal year 2011, Penn Medicine provided $854 million to benefit our community.
About DreamIt Ventures
DreamIt Ventures is a pre-seed stage venture firm, with the goal of helping great people with great ideas build great companies. DreamIt provides aspiring entrepreneurs with access to seasoned entrepreneurs and subject matter experts to help them validate and de-risk their ideas, a uniquely assigned seasoned entrepreneur as a mentor, pre-seed funding, services from leading law firms and accounting firms, a rigorous and creative working environment, and access to capital. DreamIt was founded in 2008 by three successful technology entrepreneurs who want to create the same type of opportunities that they were fortunate to have had themselves for the next wave of entrepreneurs. Since kicking off in Philadelphia, DreamIt has expanded to Austin, New York, and Israel; been named the third best accelerator program in the world by Forbes Magazine in 2012; and launched 102 companies with an enterprise value greater than $370, including: SCVNGR, Parse,ly, SeatGeek, Adaptly, MindSnacks, ShowMe, AppAddictive, LearnBop, Take The Interview, Cloudmine, ElectNext, SnipSnap, Charlie, Cloudamize, Vantageous, Winston, PeerActive, TrendKite, and Yevvo. More information about DreamIt Ventures is available online at www.dreamitventures.com , or via email at info@dreamitventures.com
About Venturef0rth
Venturef0rth provides tech startups and early-stage companies a physical home in Philadelphia designed for coworking and collaboration, a community of peers, operational support, and guidance from entrepreneurs-in-residence. It also serves as a venue for events at the intersection of entrepreneurship, technology and design. Venturef0rth was founded and is managed by three successful entrepreneurs driven to accelerate the success of the region's emerging tech titans. Elliot Menschik, M.D. Ph.D., will co-lead the program. Dr. Menschik's last company, HxTechnologies was a pioneer in medical imaging and health information exchange and was acquired by MEDecision, the health IT subsidiary of Health Care Service Corporation.
Media Contacts: Ruth Stoolman Independence Blue Cross 215.241.4807 215.280.3335 Susan Phillips Penn Medicine 215.898.4004 Gavin Skillman Launch Squad 212.564.3665
