Health Care Start-up Conference (OnRamp) Generates Lots of Ideas!
I was at gener8tor’s health care start-up conference, OnRamp, at Lambeau Field this week along with my colleagues Michael Peer and Amy Vehrs. It was fun to be with some 500+ entrepreneurs, health care providers, organizations and investors who all have a goal of finding new ways to advance health care.
Gener8tor, a Wisconsin-based accelerator, is ranked among the top 15 accelerators nationally. That’s pretty heady considering New York and Silicon Valley are hubs for start-ups. (gener8tor’s work is pretty broad, so check them out!)
CLA was proud to sponsor the inaugural OnRamp Healthcare event along with an impressive list of others, such as presenting sponsors, the Wisconsin Medical Society and WisMed Assure, as well as WEA Trust, Pfizer, BayCare Clinic, Michael Best Strategies, Valet Health, Godfrey & Kahn, Marshfield Clinic, Symphony Care, and more.
Participants had three tracks from which to choose: conference, networking or start-up. The conference track was a day full of interesting speakers and sessions. The networking track had plenty of time for networking meetings and VC office hours. The start-up track, the one I was in, was a day of meetings with start-up companies. In reality, you could bounce around between the tracks some, but beyond the morning keynote of Aneesh Chopra, my schedule was pretty full with start-up meetings. (FYI, Chopra believes we will begin to see a new consumer movement emerge this fall where apps will be used to gain access to health care data in order for consumers to make decisions.)
During our meetings I found it interesting to hear from start-ups about their visions and how their products/solutions could help advance health care. As we talked, I couldn’t help but think through their ideas to see how those fit into where health care payment and delivery are already moving. Time will tell whether the following gain mass adoption, but here are my thoughts on CLA’s meetings.
- We sat down with Code Monkeys to chat about their portal/API for HIPAA-compliant medical forms/info. The design is to give consumers the ability to access and control their data and share with others. At a very high level, to me this aligns well with where CMS and Secretary Verma are headed with Blue Button 2.0.
- We heard from several start-ups on precision medicine approaches. Interestingly, both related to an individual’s metabolic function and the role that plays in better addressing conditions like obesity (Lume by MetaLogics) or to ensure drug dosing/efficacy (Microlitics). Precision medicine is certainly discussed as the future of disease treatment (especially if it can assist with a chronic condition like obesity) and these ideas are right in line with that.
- And who doesn’t want a great night’s sleep?! Yes, please. One of our meetings was learning about a solution around improving sleep health (puresomni). It got me to thinking about medical residents or those who work second or third shifts at a hospital…don’t they all have disrupted sleep patterns? We know that research shows lack of sleep leads to more errors, so better sleep for those in health care seems valuable to me!
- Several of our meetings focused on solutions like remote patient monitoring, RPM, (ONKOL) and virtual assistants using Artificial Intelligence, AI, (Interactions). RPM is already gaining traction, especially since it is now reimbursable by Medicare. RPM can assist in managing chronic disease, illness recovery at home, or aging in place. As for AI, it seems like it’s the solution to everything in health care, right?, with virtual assistants just one of hundreds (or even thousands) of ways AI could be used in (hopefully) helping streamline health care in the future.
- Medical Engineering Innovations discussed a new surgical tool (SwiftBlade) designed to reduce blood loss during certain surgeries. Decreased mortality rates and reduced operating room time, both valuable outcomes for patients and physicians.
- 3D printing and the IoT made their appearance in our meetings, but not always in the ways I thought they would. IoT was actually in relation to lithium batteries (Blue Line Battery) and their IoT platform. That platform/approach is already being used with manufacturing companies and they are now looking at moving into health care. The Virtual Foundry discussed a new filament they created for use in 3D printing. Due to the durability and precision 3D prints the filament creates, it has various health care applications.
Many of these companies are in clinical trials or have submitted 510k applications to the FDA. Others already have some customers, but are on the verge of new growth. Everyone was looking for more customers, to develop strategic partnerships or raise funds.
All in all, a fun, interesting and packed event. I’m looking forward to seeing how CLA can work with new, emerging companies and established ones as health care’s future unfolds. Opportunity awaits.
Jennifer Boese is the Director of Health Care Policy at CLA. She is a highly successful public policy, legislative, advocacy and political affairs leader, including working in both the state and federal government as well as the private sector. She brings over 20 years of government relations and public policy knowledge with her to CLA. Well over half of her career has been spent dedicated to health care policy and the health care industry, affording her a deep understanding of the health care market and environment, health care organizations and health care stakeholders. Her role at CLA is to provide thought leadership, policy analysis and strategic insights to health care providers across the continuum related to the industry's ongoing transformation towards value. A key focus of that work is on market innovations and emerging payment models. Her goal is to help CLA clients navigate and thrive in an increasingly dynamic health care environment.
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