Healthcare : Innovation + Job News

Every year, kids in the Philadelphia School District get an eyesight screening at school. About 16,000 of them don’t pass the eye exam, says Colleen McCauley, health policy director at Public Citizens for Children and Youth (PCCY).

But the trouble with blurry blackboards doesn’t stop there: About two thirds of those 16,000 kids don’t go on to get the eye care they need, including a full exam from an optician and a pair of glasses. That’s partly because many Philly families still don’t have health insurance or can’t afford the extra expense. Other low-income families may have coverage through Medicaid or CHIP, but aren't aware that these benefits extend to eye care.

These are all reasons PCCY is holding its seventh annual Give Kids Sight Day on October 24, with help from Wills Eye Hospital and the Eagles Youth Partnership (which has operated its Eagles Eye Mobile since 1996).

"Every year, somewhere between 30 and 40 percent of the children who come to Give Kids Sight Day are uninsured," explains McCauley. While the majority of participants may actually have coverage for eye care, no-one is turned away at the event. "One of the main points of this day is to make sure people understand that insurance is available, and public health insurance covers eye care."

Parents who learn this -- and get help registering for and navigating the system -- are then better equipped to deal with their kids’ healthcare needs overall.

Since its inception, Give Kids Sight Day has helped give totally free eye care to about 5,500 youngsters in Eastern Pennsylvania. Over the years, attendance at this busy healthcare event has ranged from 700 to 1400 people. This year, PCCY expects about 1200, so it’s a good idea to arrive early. There will be translators onsite for up to fifteen different languages, making sure services are accessible to all families.

The whole event takes about 450 volunteers, from the clinicians performing the exams to helpers registering families, escorting them and keeping kids entertained.

McCauley notes a small but important victory in kids' healthcare policy that the event helped bring about: Two years ago, PCCY surveyed all participating parents about why they came to the clinic and found that many families arrived not because they couldn’t get a pair of glasses, but because public health insurance programs in Pennsylvania covered only one pair of glasses per child. When those got broken -- common for any active kid -- families couldn’t afford to replace them.

Lobbying from PCCY and partners resulted in a policy shift at CHIP: The program now covers replacement glasses, when needed.

The day’s services, which will include activities and snacks for participating families (who should be prepared to wait a few hours for their kids’ turn), will be held in three different buildings on the Jefferson Medical Campus in Center City. Doors open at 8:30 a.m., and families will be able to register for services until 2 p.m. The free eyeglasses dispensed through the program will arrive at participating kids' schools a few weeks later.

Writer: Alaina Mabaso
Source: Colleen McCauley, Public Citizens for Children and Youth
 

The University City Science Center  is now accepting applications for the sophomore class of its Digital Health Accelerator (DHA), a program that helps launch companies in the digital health or health IT sectors.

Need convincing? Consider UE Lifesciences, one of the startups in the inaugural DHA class that wrapped in July. UELS recently announced that it has raised $3 million in venture capital to commercialize its handheld breast health examination tool.

iBreastExam, a painless and radiation-free device, can be easily operated by nurses and social workers to provide standardized breast exams with instant results at the point of care. The product uses patented ceramic sensors invented at Drexel University to detect subtle variations in the stiffness of breast tissue that can point to tumors.

The implications for women in the developing world are enormous. Survival rates for women in the U.S. diagnosed with breast cancer are 80 to 90 percent compared to less than 50 percent for women in the developing world.

"iBreastExam may provide a fighting chance for them by enabling early detection on a large scale," explains Dr. Ari Brooks, director of the Integrated Breast Center at Pennsylvania Hospital.

According to the Science Center, UELS and the six other companies in the first DHA class went from prototype to commercialization, created 53 new jobs, generated $600,000 in sales and raised almost $4 million in follow-on investment.

For the next class, they're is looking for companies ready to establish operations in Greater Philadelphia with a product or concept ready to be sold -- or that will be ready with DHA support -- on the U.S. healthcare market. The six companies will each receive up to $50,000, office space at the Science Center, professional mentorship, access to investors and introductions to appropriate decision makers in their target markets.

The program will run for one year beginning in February 2016. Applications are due October 26.

Source: University City Science Center and UE Lifesciences
Writer: Elise Vider

WRITER IN RESIDENCE is a partnership between the University City Science Center and Flying Kite Media that embeds a reporter on-site at 3711 Market Street. The resulting coverage will provide an inside look at the most intriguing companies, discoveries and technological innovations coming out of this essential Philadelphia institution.
 

Dr. Michelle Johnson isn’t a Philadelphia native – she’s been heading up the new Rehabilitation Robotics Lab out of University of Pennsylvania’s GRASP (general robotics, automation, sensing & perception) laboratory for only about two years – so when she heard she’d been nominated for Scientist of the Year in the Philadelphia Geek Awards, she didn’t know what to think.

"Since I’m new to Philadelphia, I didn’t know what it meant," she explains. "I’m like, 'What? Is that a good thing?'"

In Philadelphia, also known as the "eds and meds" capital of the U.S., it definitely is. But in the truest geek fashion, Johnson wasn’t even able to make it to the August 15 ceremony at the Academy of Natural Sciences. She spoke to Flying Kite about her recent work from Singapore, where she and her Penn team were presenting at the International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics, before jaunting to Botswana for some more research.

The Jamaican-born Johnson grew up in New York and received her Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Stanford with an emphasis in robotics, design and mechatronics. (Don’t know what mechatronics is? It’s a combination of mechanical engineering, computing and electronics to help us discover and develop new manufacturing techniques.)

In 2013, Johnson moved her lab from its original location in the medical college of Wisconsin’s Marquette University to the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, taking up a faculty position at Penn.

Johnson acknowledges that her focus -- robots that assist in rehabilitation and treatment for people dealing with things such as spinal cord injuries, multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy and other problems -- is a very narrow slice of a rapidly expanding field, one that has been around only for the last 25 years or so.

Engineers like Johnson and her team at Penn work closely with neuroscientists. Neuroplasticity is the name of the game: the brain’s ability to re-wire and reroute itself after an injury. It's crucial in fields such as prosthetics -- where patients’ brains learn to interact with robotic devices that restore the body’s function -- or to bolster limbs weakened from conditions like MS.

With cutting-edge technologies like EEGs and functional MRIs revealing our neurons’ "structural connectivity," they're working not just to understand the normal brain, but also to piece together what happens when the brain becomes damaged, and develop technology to pair with our bodies in ways that were unimaginable a few decades ago.

Things like Ekso Bionics, which help people with spinal cord injuries to walk again, get a lot of press, but Johnson also points to work like functional electrical stimulation and implanted electrodes as recent major advances in rehab, along with rehabilitative robotic devices that enable injured patients to continue crucial exercise regimens at home for a much longer time than is feasible in hospital settings. Wearable sensors, especially those invisibly embedded in textiles (with myriad applications for remote monitoring of patients), are also part of the next big wave of medical robotics, even if it’s not widely commercialized yet.

Though proud of her recent nomination, Johnson stresses that science is a team sport.

"Oftentimes when you get the accolade, you forget all the students and the support staff that really are critical to this process," she insists. "I want to really make clear that nothing can happen without that team…I want to congratulate my team for working hard and doing good research."

Writer: Alaina Mabaso
Source: Michelle Johnson, Ph.D., Rehabilitation Robotics Lab at Penn

Independence Blue Cross (IBX) and Thomas Jefferson University have embarked on a new collaboration "designed to boost innovation in healthcare across the region and help both organizations improve the quality and value of healthcare," said the partners in a statement.

The new Independence Blue Cross – Jefferson Health Innovation Collaboration will be jointly and equally funded up to $2 million by IBX and Jefferson. The program will be run through the Independence Blue Cross Center for Health Care Innovation and Jefferson's Innovation Pillar. 

According to Jefferson's Donna Gentile O’Donnell, details are still being worked out, but the effort will include an entrepreneur-in-residence program for clinicians and researcher who have promising discoveries that need more dedicated time and proof-of-concept support, including prototyping. 

The entrepreneurs-in-residence will also participate in education curriculum in entrepreneurship and an innovation engagement speaker series.The collaboration also plans to host health hackathons with participants working intensely to "hack" usable solutions to important healthcare issues such as reducing hospital readmissions, designing wearable devices that improve healthcare delivery and other cutting-edge technology applications.

"We anticipate that the entrepreneur-in-residence program will be a pivot point for moving new ideas forward and changing what we do and how we do it in multiple aspects of healthcare," enthused Stephen K. Klasko, president and CEO of Jefferson University and Jefferson Health.

Gentile O’Donnell says that specifics of the selection process are being worked out, but that for year one "we are looking for areas of practice research and clinical applications that may need proof of concept, but [whose hypotheses] point in the direction of improving care, decreasing care risk and decreasing hospital readmission."

Established in February 2014, IBX's Center for Health Care Innovation houses a wide range of initiatives and champions healthcare entrepreneurism in the region. Jefferson's Innovation Pillar is an initiative designed to elevate and encourage innovation as a mission for the university and the health system.

Source: Donna Gentile O’Donnell, TJU and Independence Blue Cross
Writer: Elise Vider
 

For the chronically ill, managing multiple medications can be an ongoing challenge. One-third to one-half of all U.S. patients do not take their meds as directed, jeopardizing their health and running up nearly $100 billion in annual hospital bills, according to Independence Blue Cross (IBX).

Hoping to solve that problem, TowerView Health, a Philadelphia startup, is testing its high-tech pillbox in a six-month study with Independence and Penn Medicine. 

"TowerView has two brilliant engineers that have developed the pillbox technology almost entirely in-house," explains company CEO Rahul Jain. "Our team has been working for over a year to provide patients with a pillbox that can sense when they miss a dose of their medication and send the patient and/or their caregiver an automated phone or text message reminder."

The company was established in 2014 when co-founder Nick Valilis was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia during his first week of medical school. Later that year, TowerView participated in the DreamIt Health program to fine-tune its business model and meet potential customers. 

Qualified individuals covered by IBX will be provided with pre-filled medication trays, each containing a week’s medication. The tray fits inside TowerView's Internet-enabled pillbox. For those without cell phones, the pillbox is equipped with lights and alarms. Penn Medicine researchers will use an integrated software platform to monitor members' compliance and call to offer additional assistance. 

"Each member will participate in the pilot for six months," says Ron Brooks, IBX senior medical director for clinical services. "The goal is to evaluate the efficacy of TowerView’s system in hopes of launching it to a larger patient population of [IBX] members next year."

Jain also invites individuals -- especially those managing five or more medications -- to email the company directly. 

Source: Rahul Jain, TowerView Health; Independence Blue Cross
Writer: Elise Vider

With the goal of becoming the Expedia of healthcare, ContactMyDoc has developed a platform that allows patients to comparison shop for healthcare services based on cost, quality and proximity. For now, the IT startup -- based in suburban Philadelphia -- is limited to radiology, but other specialties are on the way.

"The impetus for founding ContactMyDoc was to offer price transparency to patients so they could make more informed decisions about where and how to spend their money on healthcare," explains CEO and co-founder Harsh Singh. "ContactMyDoc offers both price and quality transparency directly to the consumer through an easy-to-navigate online platform that looks and feels similar to Expedia. After entering three basic pieces of information, the patient has the ability to easily compare cost and quality data for radiology services of local providers and request an appointment online. With the price of MRI’s varying from $300 to $3,000 for the same exam, the response from consumers who are saving money without sacrificing the quality of their care has been overwhelming."

The platform, which includes a mobile app, SMS messaging, email and automated voice, also helps healthcare providers increase revenue and employers decrease costs. 

Headquartered in Montgomeryville, ContactMyDoc has about 75 clients located across eight states and is expanding aggressively. One early client was Progressive Radiology, which services Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Chicago. The company has also partnered with two electronic medical record providers for patient notifications and patient engagement. 

Looking ahead, the company is in talks with electronic health and medical record companies as well as large healthcare providers in order to expand into other specialties.

"Over the next year, we will be focusing on areas such as outpatient surgery, colonoscopy and other healthcare specialties where there is a large variation in cost and quality," enthuses Singh.

Source: Harsh Singh, ContactMyDoc
Writer: Elise Vider

Dieters rejoice. At last, a plate that can keep you honest.

Philadelphia’s Fitly has developed SmartPlate, a Wi-Fi and Bluetooth-enabled hardware device that instantly tracks and analyzes what you eat with the support of a mobile application.

The plate’s design is based on research that shows that size, color and shape all influence eating habits. According to the company's website, the average dinner plate has grown 36 percent since 1960 and bigger plates translate to bigger waistlines. Similarly, studies have shown that darker plates make it harder to determine a proper portion, encouraging overeating. The SmartPlate is shaped as a "squircle," to give the illusion of a bigger surface while providing a 10-inch diameter white surface -- ideal for healthy portions.

SmartPlate has built-in advanced object recognition and weight sensors, providing an automated reading of what a user is eating. It comes with an Android or iOS app that integrates with most wearable devices and food journaling apps.

The plate also comes with a microwaveable lid and in a variety of colors.

Anthony Ortiz founded Fitly, aimed at weight management and control of diabetes, in 2011. The company has established itself through its mobile/web app as a delivery service for fresh ingredients and recipes based on the user’s personalized healthy meal selections. Fitly is a 2013 DreamIt Health graduate. 

The company launched SmartPlate, its first product, earlier this month at Collision Conference in Las Vegas and is now in the midst of a Kickstarter campaign where it hopes to raise $100,000 to start production. They hope to begin shipping next year.

Source: Fitly
Writer: Elise Vider

Ten early-stage companies in Greater Philadelphia are at work on innovative projects, and they're getting a boost from $2 million in new investments from Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania. 

Atrin Pharmaceutical is a Bucks County biopharmaceutical firm that centers its research on the treatment of cancers lacking effective therapies. Its technology will advance drug development for the treatment of solid tumors including breast, pancreatic, lung, ovarian and colon cancers.

Decision Simulation in Chester County is the creator of DecisionSim, a simulation-based learning platform that enhances decision-making by allowing organizations to easily create assessment, education and training programs. Leveraging adult learning and gaming concepts, DecisionSim allows custom learning experiences to be developed while evaluating the decisions of learners, and collects valuable objective behavioral data to allow for a greater understanding of decision-making.

H2Odegree (H2O) in Bucks County is a manufacturer of wireless sensors and Software as a Service (SaaS) that provides solutions for measuring, controlling and billing utility costs in apartments, allowing landlords to improve their overall financial performance. The company’s target market is multi-family housing customers who use the company’s products and services for tenant billing and energy conservation related to water, electric, gas, btus and thermostat controls. H2O has over 38,000 sensors installed in 13,000 apartments in over 130 properties throughout North America.

MilkCrate in Philadelphia engages and rewards users who want to live their values by providing sponsored civic and commercial opportunities related to sustainably. Its app serves as a central digital hub for municipalities, businesses and organizations to reach conscientious consumers with relevant and tailored information.

Philadelphia’s Pico is a real-time engagement tool for brands, allowing them to engage with fans during events through the fans' pictures. All fans' pictures are automatically uploaded to the brand’s Facebook Page. Using Pico’s auto-tagging abilities, a real bond between the fan and brand is created.

In Bucks County, PrescribeWell is a new Platform-as-a-Service that enables physicians, healthcare providers and integrated health systems to seamlessly implement a turnkey, self-branded prevention, wellness and obesity intervention business in their existing practice. Customers license the company’s "white label" solution as their own, enabling them to generate significant new revenue streams that leverage the changes in healthcare reimbursement policy for physicians in preventive medicine.

In Philadelphia, RistCall helps hospitals and skilled nursing facilities improve patient safety and satisfaction scores by updating traditional wall-mounted nurse-call buttons with wearable technology devices. RistCall currently focuses on reducing patient falls and improving hospital/patient satisfaction.

Philadelphia’s Textizen provides mobile technologies for public engagement. The company makes it easy for government, organizations and companies to connect with people on the device they use most -- their mobile phone. The platform sends, receives and analyzes text messages. Administrators can click one button instead of making 10 or 10,000 phone calls, and use real-time dashboards to inform policy changes or deliver better customer service.

TowerView Health in Philadelphia helps chronically ill patients manage complex medication regimens. Patients using TowerView’s service receive pre-filled medication trays that insert into a connected pillbox, facilitating complex regimens with preformed ease -- its akin to a single-serve coffee machine. The connected pillbox senses when patients forget medication doses and sends automated text message or phone reminders to patients and their loved ones.

Viridity Energy in Philadelphia, a software technology company focused on total energy management, has a software and technology platform that allows commercial and industrial users to identify inherent load flexibility in their operations and monetize it. The company says its"“software turns energy profiles into financial returns"” transforming how energy customers interact proactively and productively with the electric grid.

Source: BFTP/SEP
Writer: Elise Vider

When we think of the human element in medicine, we might think of the doctor who interacts with the patient in need of treatment. But thanks to a burgeoning revolution in the biopharmaceutical industry, there are thousands of other face-to-face meetings that need to happen long before any drug even reaches a trial, let alone the market.

In the biotech industry, these connections are called "partnering," and it’s a vital piece of the Biotechnology Industry Organization's (BIO) 2015 BIO International Convention, coming to the Pennsylvania Convention Center June 15-18. The Washington, D.C.-based BIO is the world’s largest trade association for biotech companies, academic institutions and government science centers, and organizers say the convention will draw about 15,000 people from 30 countries (about one third of attendees will come from outside the U.S.).

"The 2015 BIO International Convention is where the global biotech community meets," explains BIO Director of Partnering Sougato Das.

Das calls Partnering "biotech-pharma speed-dating," and this year, it’s happening thanks to BIO’s new propriety software system, One-on-One Partnering, developed by BIO and INOVA.

The BIO convention will be packed with CEOs and other executives from biotech companies all over the world, working to advance everything from medicine and human health to industrial, environmental and agricultural technology, as well as biomanufacturing, genomics, nanotechnology and more. Picture an area the size of a football field, outfitted with hundreds of cubicles for face-to-face meetings. 

That's where the One-on-One platform comes in. Companies or institutions that want to pitch their promising biotech advances can use the software to connect with companies looking to invest in and/or develop and market their innovations. The system allows participants to enter their companies' details, their individual conference schedules, and invitations to the people they need to meet. The software automates the rest, generating a schedule for everyone that maximizes the crucial face-to-face time that powers the modern industry.

During the June conference, organizers estimate that over 29,000 meetings will take place among the 6,000 or so attendees who will participate on the Partnering platform. That means over 1,100 different meetings per hour at the conference’s peak times.  

Why are these meetings important? According to Das, to understand that you have to understand how the biotech and biopharmaceutical industries have changed since the 1950s and 60s. Back then, the massive companies of today like Merck and Pfizer were getting started, employing tens of thousands of in-house scientists and researchers who developed relatively simple drugs with mass-market applications.

Today, what Das dubs the "low-hanging fruit" of new drug development is gone and researchers are working on more complicated molecules, compounds and drugs for more targeted consumer audiences. Instead of discovering and developing new drugs or other biotech innovations in-house, throngs of scientists, researchers, academics, investors and businesses participate in a much broader-based search for the next big breakthrough. But that takes meetings -- lots of meetings.

"There’s more variety out there," says Das. "All they have to do is meet with these people who have these new biotechnology innovations out there and say, show me what you got -- let’s see if it’s a fit for my company."

Writer: Alaina Mabaso
Source: Sougato Das, Biotechnology Industry Organization

Being chosen to present at this year's Wharton Business Plan Competition Venture Finals was a surprise to at least one of the eight teams participating in the April 30 event: The founders of ThirdEye are not even Wharton students (yet) -- they’re freshmen at the University of Pennsylvania. But their technology, an app joined with a wearable Google Glass-type device, has major potential for helping those with visual impairments live more independent lives.
 
ThirdEye co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Rajat Bhageria (author of What High School Didn’t Teach Me) isn’t wasting any time in the quest to build world-changing technology. He teamed up with Ben Sandler (ThirdEye founding head engineer and a computer and cognitive science major), Philippines native David Ongchoco (founding head marketer and media maven), and founding engineer Joe Cappadona (an "athlete, musician, and computer programmer") to develop the technology and business plan almost as soon as they arrived at Penn.
 
"I want to leave a dent in the universe by creating things that people want," explains Bhageria, a Cincinnati native and computer science engineering major. "We believe in empowering visually impaired individuals."

There are a lot of people who could use their technology -- there are about 300 million visually impaired people in the world; they generate over $41 billion in spending on assistive technologies annually.
 
The ThirdEye glasses and app work by verbally identifying common objects for wearers who can pick them up, but can’t see them. For example, its camera and voice can tell blind people what denomination of money they’re handed or what kind of pill bottle or household item they’re holding. (Check out the ThirdEye website for a video demo.)

Other uses include identifying street signs and even being able to read books, menus and newspapers. Bhageria says future updates could incorporate facial recognition software, language translation for travelers, and recognition of individual medications and foods.

They’re already partnering with the National Federation of the Blind to bring the product to market.

Though the young men aren’t enrolled in grad school yet, "we have been leveraging every opportunity at Wharton we can get our hands on," enthuses Bhageria. The team talks to professors weekly, joined Wharton’s Venture Initiation Program startup incubator, participates in Wharton events and competitions, and takes Wharton classes.
 
All that learning and networking -- and the intense time put into current competition -- is already paying off. The company began building their product last September and are already in beta testing with visually impaired individuals. They’re heading for a clinical study this summer with up to 20 participants, with a national beta launch in view for later in the year.
 
As for the April 30 pitch-fest itself, initially the team "had no expectation of doing well considering that most of the participants -- MBA students -- have years of industry experience over us," says Bhageria, but their confidence has been growing.
 
"Now we’re not just in it for the experience," he insists. "We’re in it to win it."

There’s $128,500 in cash and in-kind awards at stake, including the $30,000 Perlman Grand Prize. That would be a great boost to the team as they head into clinical trials, and "could be fundamental in opening doors for insurance to cover our product."
 
The Wharton Business Plan Competition Venture Finals featuring 20-minute presentations from the "Great Eight" finalists is happening 1 - 6 p.m. Thursday, April 30 at the Wharton School.
 
Writer: Alaina Mabaso
Source: Rajat Bhageria, Third Eye

A Penn State team has launched a crowdfunding campaign to support its promising research on brain repair.

"Our revolutionary technology holds promise as a potential treatment for many brain injuries and disorders," explains Gong Chen, a biology professor and the Verne M. Willaman Chair in Life Sciences, who heads the research. "We recently discovered a way to transform one type of a patient's own brain cells -- called glial cells -- into healthy, functioning nerve cells that can replace those damaged by Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, brain trauma, spinal-cord trauma or stroke. For the first time in history, our revolutionary technology now can reverse glial scars back into functional neural tissue inside the brain."

According to an article written by Penn State spokeswoman Barbara Kennedy and originally published in the Centre Daily Times, Chen’s team has published research describing its success: "Even in very old mice with Alzheimer’s disease, [they were] able to regenerate many functional neurons from the internal glial cells of these mice and to replenish the lost neurons in the brains of the mice. This research raises the hope that neural-replacement therapy might someday help human patients."

The new month-long crowdfunding campaign has a $50,000 goal and ends at the end of April. The money will allow the lab to purchase critical equipment and materials, and to proceed more quickly to clinical trials. 

"It will take at least an estimated $1 million per year to hire highly skilled people and to carry out vital tests on several specific disorders," says Chen. "With [funding] we can move our lab research to human clinical trials much faster, perhaps shortening the delivery of drug therapy to patients from 10 years to five years."

Source: Barbara Kennedy, Penn State University
Writer: Elise Vider

The University City Science Center in West Philadelphia is now fully leased at its newest building at 3737 Market Street with the expansion of its anchor tenant.

Penn Medicine University City is expanding into an additional 56,000 square feet or two entire floors. With this lease expansion, Penn Medicine occupies almost 268,000 square feet in the 13-story laboratory and office building. 

"3737 Market’s rapid lease up exemplifies the attractiveness of the Science Center as a location of choice in the innovation ecosystem," insists Science Center President and CEO Stephen S. Tang. 

The new building has achieved LEED Gold certification for its core and shell design. The structure also incorporates innovative energy efficiency features, an extensive green roof system with a white roof membrane that helps reduce heat emissions from the building, and an innovative storm water management system. It is the first health care building in Pennsylvania to have a chilled beam system, an advanced convection HVAC system designed to heat or cool large structures. 

Wexford Science & Technology, a real estate company specializing in facilities for institutions such as universities, university-related research parks and health care systems, and the Science Center jointly developed the building, which opened in September.

According to its website, the Science Center now comprises 16 buildings across a 17-acre campus offering "both plug-and-play incubator space for startup companies and office and lab space for established companies."

Source: University City Science Center
Writer: Elise Vider
 

Alice Solomon, senior director of Pulse InfoFrame, has some questions: "Is it a problem that Starbucks is using the latest in analytics to get you a better cup of coffee, but we aren’t doing it to save your life? Is it a problem that the oncologist treating your mother may be totally unaware of how other doctors around the country and around the world are successfully treating different types of cancer? Is it a problem that your doctor diagnoses high blood pressure, prescribes meds, and sends you on your way to change your diet and sedentary lifestyle? Yes, yes, yes."

Pulse, a health care technology startup at Philadelphia's University City Science Center Digital Health Accelerator, is aiming to solve those challenges with its clinical and research platform, providing data, management and integration systems targeted at the highly detailed requirements of medical specialists. Physicians, hospitals, researchers, and medical device and pharmaceutical companies can use the cloud-based platform to capture, organize, model, store and share detailed administrative and medical data with patients and other health care stakeholders. 

The company was founded in 2011 in Canada, where it is providing the platform for a national melanoma registry, and has an office in India. Pulse originally came to Philadelphia as a participant in the Canadian Technology Accelerator and is committed to launching its U.S. operations in the region. Pulse already has its local first client, Simon’s Fund, a Lafayette Hill-based nonprofit focused on research and awareness of sudden cardiac arrest and death in young athletes and children.

According to Solomon, electronic medical records "are administrative and billing tools…they were never intended to solve patient care problems. The Pulse platform focuses on improving patient care by looking at what we call ‘little data,’ which is customizing data collection to pull what is relevant to the clinician with the goal of solving real big questions. We support 22 diseases globally (including cancer, diabetes and heart disease), provide mobile access and promote patient engagement in their own health. We find out why things happen."

Source: Alice Solomon, Pulse InfoFrame
Writer: Elise Vider

In the sounds-like-science-fiction department comes BioBots, a Philadelphia startup developing high-resolution, desktop 3D printers that generate living tissue.

"BioBots is like a 3D printer, but instead of using plastic filament to create 3D structures, it uses mixtures of biocompatible materials (like collagen) and living cells to create 3D tissues," explains CEO Danny Cabrera. "The finished product that comes out of the BioBot is alive."

The first-generation BioBots 1 printer can generate a dozen different cell types. 
  
With over 120,000 patients in the United States on organ-transfer waiting lists, building replacement organs is a long-term goal for the company. For now, the printers are primarily used for research.

"Biofabrication technology is definitely becoming more and more accessible in functionality, ease of use and cost, and that is going to greatly accelerate the pace of development," says Cabrera. "We are currently focusing on making the best research tool for our customers, taking structures out of lab note books and onto lab benches. It’s only a matter of time before those same structures start leaking out of the lab and into the clinic." 

Co-founder Ricardo Solorzano started working on printing 3D tissues -- and built the first prototype -- in his University of Pennsylvania dorm room. In August, he and Penn classmates Cabrera and Sohaib Hashmi launched the company. The startup initially grew at the DreamIt Health incubator and recently received funding from Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania. 

BiotBots is also opening a seed round of funding; actively promoting its beta program; offering testers a bioprinter and support for $5,000; and recruiting for its R&D team.

"The BioBot 1 is exciting, but it’s definitely not all we have up our sleeves," insists Cabrera. "Look out for a radical change in a few healthcare-related industries and new industries being created by our technology."

Source: Danny Cabrera, BioBots
Writer: Elise Vider
 

Philadelphia’s Curbside Care has combined an old idea -- doctor house calls -- and a new one -- the Uber model -- to create technology that allows patients to schedule healthcare services when and where they want them.

Inspiration for Curbside Care came to co-founder Scott Ames when he was away from home and experienced a costly and time-consuming visit to an urgent care center. He and Grant Mitchell started the company based on the premise that "there are people out there who don't want to travel, who don't want to wait, and who appreciate transparent pricing," explains Mitchell. 

Located at the Digital Health Accelerator at the University City Science Center, Curbside Care is developing a tech platform and mobile app that allows patients to schedule house (or office or hotel) calls. Using HIPAA compliant, geolocation-based technology, medical practitioners confirm appointments and travel to deliver care, all in real time. 

"It is a bit ironic that advancement in technology is now allowing medicine to be practiced in a way that it was years ago," muses Mitchell. "But developments in technology and logistics allows for house calls to actually be cost effective. On-demand care will come in many forms in the near future, and Curbside Care's particular version addresses the need for a practitioner's physical presence. Interestingly, the home is often the best place to provide quality care as the patient can be treated in their most relevant context."

Curbside Care says its market is technology-enabled consumers, in particular working professionals, young parents and corporations seeking to add attractive employee benefits. On the provider side, the target is shift-based physicians and nurse practitioners who are seeking to supplement their income.

Curbside Care currently has a working, web-based product and is completing its mobile app. The company, which is actively fundraising, is also in discussions with several large hospital systems to utilize their practitioner bases for immediate scale. 

Source: Grant Mitchell, Curbside Care
Writer: Elise Vider