Healthcare : Innovation + Job News

Researchers in Greater Philadelphia developing technologies for high-speed eye exams, cancer treatment and healthcare sanitation will receive funding through the seventh round of the University City Science Center's  QED Proof-of-Concept Program. 

The program, started in 2009, funds novel university technologies with market potential, bridging the gap between academic research and product commercialization. To date, 24 QED projects have attracted $14.8 million in follow-on funding, leading to six licensed technologies.

"QED continues to resonate with both the academic and funding community," says Science Center President and CEO Stephen S. Tang. "The number of submissions continues to increase round over round as academic researchers identify ways to commercialize their emerging technologies. At the same time, the support of our funders enables us to continue to facilitate the development of these exciting technologies and contribute to the robust life science ecosystem in the Greater Philadelphia region."

The new awardees include: 

• Dr. Chao Zhou of Lehigh University, who is developing a diagnostic instrument that will allow faster, more sensitive eye exams for macular degeneration and glaucoma, improving an approach known as optical coherence tomography (OCT).
• Dr. William Wuest of Temple University, who is developing the next generation of disinfectants for a variety of commercial industries including healthcare, transportation, water and energy.
• Dr. Sunday Shoyele of Thomas Jefferson University, who is developing a product for delivering highly-degradable gene inhibitors to cancer and other cells using antibody-based nanoparticles.

The QED grants will also support stem cell research at Rutgers University. The awardees will receive a total of $650,000 in funding, along with guidance from the Science Center's team of business advisors.

Source: University City Science Center
Writer: Elise Vider

A Horsham company that provides technology for clinical drug trials has been selected for multiple Ebola studies in West Africa.

Clinical Ink’s "SureSource" platform allows for real-time analysis and remote review, especially important with Ebola research since it limits the number of healthcare workers that come in contact with the virus while speeding up the analysis process.

"Conducting clinical research in this part of the world is always challenging, given the remote location of the research sites and the generally poor quality of Internet connectivity," says Clinical Ink President Doug Pierce. "The Ebola epidemic heightens these difficulties dramatically. Clinical Ink was chosen because our SureSource platform allows sites to capture the data electronically rather than on paper, and seamlessly transmit that data to the pharmaceutical company for analysis -- in real time.

"A process that typically takes weeks takes minutes using SureSource,"  he continues. "Furthermore, those needing to see the information captured by the research sites can do so remotely, wherever and whenever the need arises. With this many lives at stake, saving time has never been as important."

The clinical trials are scheduled to start in several months, Pierce reports. For now, the company is preparing the electronic forms and helping assess Internet connectivity and related IT infrastructure at the sites. Once the sites have been selected, Clinical Ink will train the users and deploy tablets to the research sites.

Clinical Ink launched in 2007 when the only way to capture data in the clinical research market was paper-based, slow and expensive. SureSource, the industry's first purpose-built platform to capture data at the point of care, has been used in close to 60 trials since 2012 for clients ranging from large pharmaceutical companies to small biotech companies to large consumer product companies.

2014 saw Clinical Ink more than double in size, both in terms of revenue and employees, and further growth is projected for this year. Besides its offices in Winston-Salem, N.C., and Philadelphia, Clinical Ink plans to open offices in Boston and at a to-be-determined European location. As for the platform, it continues to evolve and the company plans to introduce what Pierce calls "a whole host of new functionality" early this year.  

Source: Doug Pierce, Clinical Ink
Writer: Elise Vider
 

Two health care IT companies and a biotech startup are the newest members of the entrepreneurial community at the University City Science Center’s Port business incubator. 

Denovo Health (de novo is Latin for a new beginning) is an engagement platform targeting chronic diseases that have a high annual cost per patient and where even marginal improvements in patient engagement drive significant health and financial benefits.

According to their website, the company incorporates "design thinking with behavioral psychology and [uses] advanced technologies to make prescribed activity easy, enjoyable and rewarding." Using mobile apps, digital and physical world interactions and behavioral change tactics, Denovo’s products target glaucoma, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and diabetes, assisting users with tracking their medication, monitoring their condition and communicating with care providers. Competitive game dynamics, rewards and social reinforcement are incorporated to boost compliance. 

Smart Activities of Daily Living (Smart ADL) is developing a digital health technology called Smart Cup that enables patients and clinicians to unobtrusively record and monitor fluid intake for effective clinical and self-care management.
 
Oncoceutics, Inc. is a drug discovery and development company targeting the most potent natural suppressor pathways in human cancer. The company’s lead compound is ONC201, a novel small molecule that promises strong anti-cancer activity in the most challenging indications in oncology. 

Oncoceutics' application to initiate clinical trials with ONC201 was accepted by the FDA in February 2014 and a series of clinical studies at leading cancer centers is being activated. Oncoceutics has development ties with Penn State and the University of Pennsylvania.
 
Source: University City Science Center
Writer: Elise Vider

While teaching yoga and aerobics at Interim House, a recovery center for women overcoming addiction and other mental health issues -- many of whom had been incarcerated -- Kristin Gavin noticed that her classes weren’t reaching everyone.

"I surveyed them and asked, would you ride a bike?" recalls Gavin. Many of the women, including those who wouldn’t come to yoga or aerobics, said yes.

What was the difference?

"Women said, 'it’s fun,' 'it’s exercise,' and ‘I want to get out of the house,'" she explains.

So Gavin, who came to Philadelphia in 2007 to earn her Masters degree from Temple University in Exercise and Sport Psychology, launched the Center City-based Gearing Up with five bicycles in 2009. In December, the program nabbed a $40,000 grant from the GlaxoSmithKline IMPACT Awards.

Part of what spurred Gavin to create a community cycling program for formerly incarcerated women was realizing what a challenge even a relatively short jail term could be for a woman’s health. Many of her students talked about the problem of weight gain. One said she had gained 80 pounds while incarcerated for six months.

In 2011, Gearing Up's program expanded to serve not just women outside the walls, but those still residing in Philadelphia County's Riverside Correctional Facility, offering three indoor spin classes per week for inmates. Those who complete 18 sessions in eight weeks are invited to join the outside Gearing Up program upon their release.

By tracking the health of Riverside participants, Gavin learned that women who had an 80 percent class attendance rate maintained their weight throughout their incarceration.

But cycling isn’t just about the number on the scale. Since founding Gearing Up, Gavin has been surprised by all the ways this activity has helped women re-integrate into physically and socially healthy lives.

For women emerging from correctional facilities, Gearing Up has four partner programs in Philly: Interim House, CHANCES, University City's Kirkbride Center and Gaudenzia Washington House. The organization leads two to three group bike rides per week for their clients, who track their miles until they reach 100. At that point, members graduate from the program, receiving a refurbished bike of their own (along with a lock, flat-changing kit, helmet and other gear).

"It has this whole other social component to it that wasn’t as palpable with an aerobics class or a yoga class," insists Gavin. And especially for the many women coming from repressive or abusive environments, the exercise was a great mood elevator and change of scenery.

"Women say, 'The fresh air feels so good in my face,'" she explains. They enjoy getting out in the community, seeing new places and "developing relationships with people in a very different way, a very kinesthetic way, and those are very normalizing experiences."

"Our focus has been going deeper," Gavin says of how the GSK dollars will help Gearing Up (a first-time applicant for the grant). That means extending services to the 40 women the program serves at any given time. The money will help provide increased support through volunteers and staff, even after participants’ graduation from the program, ensuring riders can make their skills on the road a permanent part of an independent life.

Writer: Alaina Mabaso
Source: Kristin Gavin, Gearing Up

A version of this story originally appeared in our sister publication Keystone Edge.

Independence Blue Cross, through its Center for Health Care Innovation, and Drexel University are embarking on a new research collaboration aimed at improving the delivery of health care and controlling costs. 

Researchers are currently evaluating a number of areas for study including:

• Identifying Independence members at risk for hospitalization and re-hospitalization, as well as identifying members who would benefit from Independence’s chronic disease outreach programs.
• Applying machine learning techniques to unstructured data, such as notes from members’ interactions with doctors and other health professionals, to predict future health problems or customer service issues.
• Evaluating health interventions that can reduce the number of avoidable emergency department visits.
• Improving the detection of fraudulent claims, predicting when fraud is likely to occur and developing strategies to help members protect their medical identity.

Though the specific research projects won’t be identified for a few months, they will "involve new ways to use data to improve health and lower costs," explains Independence spokeswoman Ruth Stoolman. 

"Each project will have a principal investigator designated from Drexel and a corresponding lead investigator from Independence," she adds. "The analyses will take place at Independence and at Drexel (all appropriate HIPAA [patient privacy] protections are in place). Some projects may also involve outreach and intervention with members and/or providers. Those interventions may be done by Drexel or Independence depending on the nature of the project and the outreach."
 
"We're already seeing some impressive early results from informatics projects we’ve designed, as well other research partnerships we’ve initiated, to improve our members’ health," said Somesh Nigam, Independence’s senior vice president and chief informatics officer, in a statement. "We’re going to see tremendous growth in machine learning and predictive analytics over the next few years, and it’s very exciting for Independence to be at the center of that work."  

Independence and Drexel also teamed up in 2012 to create a business analytics certificate program for Independence associates through the Krall Center for Corporate and Executive Education in the university's LeBow College of Business. Now in its third year, the program focuses on developing a deeper understanding of how to make databased decisions and teaches analytic techniques for identifying opportunities to enhance health care quality and services.

Source: Ruth Stoolman, Independence Blue Cross
Writer: Elise Vider
 

Part of a healthy society includes the arts, and part of an individual life well-lived includes the arts, says Drexel University Department of Creative Arts Therapy chair Dr. Sherry Goodill. So why shouldn't the modern healthcare system include them as well?

That’s part of the goal of Drexel’s new Parkway Health and Wellness Clinic, a 23,000 square-foot facility that opened in November on the second floor of the Three Parkway Building at 1601 Cherry Street. It’s a new center for patient care and research through the university’s College of Nursing and Health Professions.

"We had a vision to develop a clinical practice integrated with the research that we do here," explains Dr. Sue Smith, chair of Drexel’s Department of Health Systems & Sciences Research.

The Clinic, a teaching as well as a treatment and research facility, is open to a wide range of patients with physical and behavioral health issues. They offer primary care services (focusing on women's health and occupational therapy), physical therapy for athletes and those with medical conditions, and more. 

According to Dr. Smith, Drexel’s Creative Arts Therapy PhD program is unique in its field. She also asserts that creative arts therapy is "an up and coming area that is not as well developed as some other health divisions."

Dance, music, or the literary and visual arts can have a major positive impact on patients with emotional or behavioral challenges. As with any new health discipline, researchers are working on building the evidence for what those exact mechanisms of change are, explains Dr. Elizabeth Templeton, a clinical assistant professor and coordinator of Creative Arts Therapies' clinical services.

"Arts themselves can be inherently therapeutic and healing," says Dr. Goodill. "What we do in creative arts therapies is harness that…for individual treatment goals."

Dr. Templeton explains how something like dance-based therapy works. A typical early session is similar to a talk therapy model, but builds to something more holistic.

"It’s an awkward transition: communication through words to communicating through movement," she says. But since movement can express things that can’t be expressed in language, "How do we create a relationship through movement?"

Ultimately, integrating elements of movement and dance helps the patient "experience the body in new ways," with new methods of sensation and feeling grounded that "reverberate" through a person’s mind and feelings, to effect change in his or her behavior.

Examples of this include body stances that underscore healthy boundaries and standing up to others, or movement and balance exercises that help the patient revise crippling black-and-white ways of thinking. Exploring these ideas through the body, and not just through conversation, "can be translated to a conceptual, reframing level" that improves the patient’s daily life, says Dr. Templeton.

To learn more about services available at the Parkway Health and Wellness Clinic, call 215-553-7012. 

Writer: Alaina Mabaso
Sources: Dr. Sue Smith, Dr. Sharon Goodill, and Dr. Elizabeth Templeton, Drexel University Department of Creative Arts Therapy
 

On November 12 at Philadelphia's Innovation Lab, PIDC, First Round Capital and the City of Philadelphia announced the launch of the Startup PHL Angel Fund.

Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Alan Greenberger, who spoke at the event, said that many people have asked him whether investments like this are a risk the City should be taking.

"The answer is simple," he said, speaking to a large crowd of local startup leaders, packed with aspiring millennial entrepreneurs. To continue transforming Philadelphia into a notable draw for the country’s best ideas, "we cannot afford to do nothing."

Two years ago, the City of Philadelphia, PIDC and First Round Capital teamed up to launch the Startup PHL Seed Fund, and at this event, leaders announced the Seed Fund’s latest investment: $400,000 for Velano Vascular, a medical device company based in Philadelphia and San Francisco, that has pioneered a way to draw blood without needles.

Startup PHL has many other facets, including its Call For Ideas grant program and Startup PHL Funds, the latter of which has given a combined $1 million in seed or angel investments to six companies over the past year.

Mayor Michael Nutter, First Round Capital founder Josh Kopelman and PIDC president John Grady were all on hand to help announce the latest addition to the Startup PHL initiative: the Startup PHL Angel Fund, which will dole out investments of $25,000 to $100,000 dollars to "very early-stage companies."

The inaugural Angel Fund recipients briefly took the microphone. Jason Rappaport's Squareknot is a new app that applies the principle of Google Maps -- where users can see and compare different travel routes -- to the creation of crowd-sourced step-by-step guides for other tasks.

Locating in Philly was "a very deliberate bet" that it was right atmosphere for his startup, said Rappaport, who also considered Silicon Valley, New York City and Boston.

This year's other Angel Fund recipients are Tesorio, a service that helps companies self-finance their daily operations, and VeryApt, a new app that combines user reviews with "big data analytics" to streamline and personalize the apartment-hunting process.

"If we’re going to ask the private sector to do something, 99 times out of a 100, the public sector’s going to have to jump in too," said Mayor Nutter. "If you're an entrepreneur, Philadelphia is the place for you…and we want you right here."

The evening also included an announcement from the Commerce Department -- the third round of Startup PHL’s Call for Ideas grants is now open; over $200,000 has already been invested in ten different initiatives and organizations.

Greenberger urged attendees to apply with their most robust ideas. The deadline for applications is Friday, January 2, 2015.

 Writer: Alaina Mabaso

Malvern native Matt Madonna is getting only four hours of sleep a night -- when he’s lucky. That’s what happens when you start medical school at the same time your groundbreaking fitness app is preparing to launch.

The Northeastern University graduate majored in health sciences and worked in New York City as a personal trainer with Equinox. But Madonna discovered a big problem: most people couldn’t afford the service. On average, a starting session with a personal trainer can cost $110 to $130.

"It’s crazy," he says. "Who can afford that? There’s got to be a better alternative. The people who needed the training the most weren’t getting it, because they don’t have that [room] in their monthly budget."

Madonna, who rowed crew at Northeastern, began to research fitness and training apps, but couldn’t find anything that was easy-to-use and accessible to a wide range of sports and workout needs. That’s when he got the idea for Athlee, an app he plans to launch in Philadelphia next year.

"We’re like a fusion of Instagram and a really well laid out fitness map," he explains.

Athlee is a one-of-a-kind social network dedicated to fitness, where users (without ads or a monthly fee) can sign up and find other gym mavens or sports players who are sharing training programs. If you like someone’s training methods, goals or results, the app can provide "a standardized library of exercises," demonstrations and tutorials tailored to that workout, all vetted by health professionals.

The app’s platform allows for as much or as little gym-time sharing as you please.

"You can share your program if you want to," says Madonna. "If you don’t want to, it’s completely fine, you can be by yourself."

For those who choose to, the ability to share your progress with other users is a "double motivation," he adds, because you can get inspired by someone else’s workout, and then show your friends you’re doing it.  

An in-app store will let athletes access advice from a specific trainer. Madonna is currently signing up as many as ten trainers per week, each with at least six years professional experience. They’ll help with programs as diverse as weight loss, body-building or figure competitions, or sports from hockey to cross-country.

He designed the whole thing himself, spending countless hours mastering Photoshop on his own to create the platform. Then, something happened.

Seeking funders for his venture in late August, Madonna reached out to the author of rowing magazine story, a former teammate and alum of the University of Pennsylvania. Two days later, they sat down together, and Madonna got the dollars to move ahead with full development of the app -- an initial infusion of $50,000, with $20,000 more pending -- by the following week.   

Athlee will do select beta testing through the end of this year, and Madonna hopes to launch it in January 2015 (prime New Year’s resolution time). The date and location of the launch are TBA, but Madonna thinks Boathouse Row would be the perfect spot.

Writer: Alaina Mabaso
Source: Matt Madonna, Madonna Technologies LLC
 

Four early-stage companies, including one making its first foray into the U.S. market, are settling in at the University City Science Center's Port Business Incubator. 

CETICS Healthcare Technologies is a medical device company based in Germany. With its analysis technology and digitalization of sample profiles, the company's products drastically simplify how in-vitro diagnostics are used, opening new application areas in quality control, chemical stability testing, toxicology, and process optimization and control.

In Philadelphia, the company is launching a new product for genotoxicity testing. The TOXXs Analyzer is an automated method for fast quantification of DNA strand breaks and DNA repair capacities. 
 
In the longer term, CETICS is developing a new generation of breakthrough in-vitro diagnostic products known as "Spectral Biomarkers" that can provide early, non-invasive diagnoses of Alzheimer Disease, prostate cancer and liver fibrosis.

HaRo Pharmaceutical, another new Port company, is conducting research and development focused on the treatment of high-risk neuroblastoma, funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI). HaRo was the only small molecule therapeutic company -- out of 75 startups nationwide -- admitted to the Innovation Corps Team Training Pilot Program (ICORPS),  an NCI/National Institutes of Health-sponsored intensive commercial development course.
 
Hyalo Technologies is a biotech and pharmaceutical company developing an innovative nanotechnology drug delivery system that promises to drastically reduce systemic side effects and increase patient compliance. Potential applications include cancer, pain management, wound healing and dermatology.

Legal Science Partners (LSP), spun out of Temple University's Beasley School of Law in 2013, builds tools for the legal profession. LSP's knowledge management platform, The Monocle, allows easy, low-cost access to legal information across jurisdictions and topics. Meanwhile, products such as LawAtlas.org and Workbench convert unstructured legal text into structured question-and-answer formats.

LSP is currently building custom platforms in particular areas of law such as Prescription Drug Overdose Prevention Laws for the National Institute for Drug Abuse and Everytown for Gun Safety, and is planning to release a prototype in the coming weeks of its 50StatUS, which will include pay-per-use statutory data in the business law sector.

Source: Kristen Fitch, University City Science Center
Writer: Elise Vider

The University City Science Center has partnered with Flying Kite to showcase innovation in Greater Philadelphia.
 

If you've ever left a doctor's office with an order for lab tests, you’re likely familiar with the inconvenient and stressful experience of waiting days for results that may or may not provide a definitive diagnosis.

Fortunately, thanks to a recent $1.6 million series B seed funding effort led by Trimaran Capital Partners, Science Center-based nanotech startup Graphene Frontiers is poised to put an end to many such experiences by "creating a major paradigm change in medical diagnostics," says CEO Mike Patterson.  

That paradigm change will come from unique biosensor devices that can actually identify antibodies, proteins and other markers of infection and disease.

Graphene has already developed a proprietary and highly efficient process to produce the graphene used in the sensors. The upcoming product will allow testing from a single drop of blood that can be drawn and processed right at your doctor’s office, providing near-immediate results.  

Patterson explains that the company is also working on using its biosensors as a preventative tool -- doctors will be able to monitor changes to a patient’s specific health markers over time. 

While Graphene's early business model relied primarily on providing its namesake material to other researchers, recent seed funding will allow Graphene to "refocus and expand their efforts into more industry changing applications with the [ultra-thin graphene] material," says Patterson.

In addition to job growth and a lab expansion at the Science Center campus, the company plans to pursue opportunities in the consumer electronics industry through a new partnership with the Colleges of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) at SUNY Polytechnic Institute in Albany.

Writer: Dan Eldridge
Source: Mike Patterson, Graphene Frontiers 
 

AmerisourceBergen, a global pharmaceutical services company, is expanding into a new location in Conshohocken and expects to create at least 185 new jobs over the next three years.

"As a company, we just crested $100 billion in annualized revenues, and our growth in business is driving the opportunity to expand our presence in the Philadelphia area," says Brett Ludwig, the company's vice president of communications. "The company will retain 1,200 existing Pennsylvania-based positions, 850 of which are in the Philadelphia area, and has committed to creating at least 185 new jobs over the next three years. In addition to the new office in Conshohocken, AmerisourceBergen will maintain its presence in the Valley Forge campus location."

Ludwig adds that the new office will provide workspace for a variety of professional-level roles in finance, human resources and information technology.

AmerisourceBergen will lease and renovate Millennium III, an existing 70,000-square-foot office building in Conshohocken. The company plans to make a multi-million dollar investment at the site and the expansion is expected to be completed by end of 2014.

The company received a funding proposal from the state Department of Community and Economic Development, including a $675,000 Pennsylvania First Program grant that facilitates investment and job creation ,and $555,000 in Job Creation Tax Credits. AmerisourceBergen has accepted the funding proposal, applied for each grant and agreed to the terms prior to award receipt.

The expansion, said AmerisourceBergen President and CEO Steve Collis, "will give us the opportunity, in both our new and current locations, to make our associate work experience even more collaborative, rewarding and efficient."

Source: Brett Ludwig, Amerisource Bergen
Writer: Elise Vider

Grand rounds are a medical ritual -- regular conferences held at academic medical centers, where doctors, med students and other health care professionals convene to discuss challenging cases, share experiences and talk about relevant research.

Now, with the mass adoption of electronic health records (accelerated by the Affordable Care Act), a Philadelphia startup is aiming to modernize the grand rounds model by sharing best practices through technology.

Eric King, a former medical student and self-described data nerd, launched Grand Round Table (GRT) with co-founder John Schaeffer "because I saw the potential to enhance patient care with the same big data technologies that touch our everyday lives with Google and Amazon," he explains.

GRT's software both enables hospitals and health systems to fulfill upcoming government mandates requiring the implementation of clinical decision support solutions, and saves clinicians time digging for patient-centered resources.

Accorind to King, the company "is using the latest big data technologies to make it possible to continuously connect health care providers in any setting with the collective intelligence of the whole health system for any patient when it’s needed at the point-of-care... Our clinical decision support software automatically transforms the information that clinicians enter into the electronic health record about their patients into actionable insights based on the latest medical literature."

In a partnership with Philadelphia’s Einstein Medical Center, the company is performing at 70 percent accuracy making correct diagnoses on past cases, and two-thirds of residents report that the software enhances their educational experience during daily clinical conferences.
 
Within the next six months, GRT expects to launch a closed beta of its electronic-health-records application at several outpatient primary care sites in the Philadelphia area. Further along, GRT plans to expand into other kinds of health records and inpatient sites, and to launch another product for health plans.

Besides King, the company has two other employees and hopes to make two more hires in the next year. GRT is a graduate of the inaugural DreamIt Health program. The company stayed in Philadelphia, and is now located at the co-working space Indy Hall. Earlier this year the company received a $50,000 investment through the Technology Commercialization Fund of the Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania. 

Source: Eric King, Grand Round Table
Writer: Elise Vider

Many people have had the experience of killing time at a neighborhood pharmacy by checking their vitals at a blood pressure kiosk. But now, at a QCare clinic located inside an East Falls grocery store, customers can take advantage of the very first kiosk in the nation screening exclusively for behavioral and mental health issues.
 
The kiosk was the result of an annual design challenge organized by the Thomas Scattergood Behavioral Health Foundation, a local philanthropic group that works to change how behavioral healthcare is practiced in the Greater Philadelphia area. In 2013, the Foundation's design challenge addressed the stigma of mental health conditions on college campuses. 

Also known as convenient care clinics, the popularity of retail clinics within pharmacies has grown exponentially in recent years. Some experts estimate that as many as 3,000 such clinics will exist nationwide by 2015. And yet nearly all currently exist without the infrastructure to deal with mental health issues.  
 
The Scattergood Foundation hopes to alter that by bringing its kiosk to other retail clinics in the future. In the meantime, Philadelphians can access the iPad-powered stand at QCare's 2800 Fox Street location, inside ShopRite.   
 
Gregory Caplan, a foundation project manager, points out that while the results generated from the kiosk don't represent a formal diagnosis, anyone who completes the screening -- the process takes just a minute or two -- will be offered a list of specific mental health resources. To experience the screening online, click here. 
 
"The main point [of the kiosk] is to get people to realize that mental health is just as important as physical health," explains Teresa Moore, who also worked on the project.  
 
Writer: Dan Eldridge
Sources: Gregory Caplan and Teresa Moore, Thomas Scattergood Foundation 
 

Ask just about any self-employed professional to discuss the benefit they miss most from their salaried days and you're likely to get an earful about the trials and tribulations of individual health insurance plans.  
 
The data from Pew Charitable Trusts' most recent "State of the City" report pegs the number of freelancing Philadelphians at just north of 46,000. That's a fairly sizable group of workers, many of whom have had to navigate the frustrating world of health coverage all on their own.   
 
But for the self-employed pros who rent coworking space from CultureWorks Greater Philadelphia, the individual health coverage maze has become much simpler. Those members can now take advantage of a collaboration between CultureWorks and R-Health, a direct primary care provider Flying Kite covered this past February. In March, the Center City coworking space Benjamin's Desk also began offering R-Health plans to its members.  
 
Simply put, the main benefits of the increasingly popular direct primary care model -- in which insurance plans aren't accepted -- involve lengthier doctor-patient interactions and, in many cases, lower fees. CultureWorks' coworking members who sign up with the care provider will receive one free month of R-Health membership and a reduced ongoing rate.   
 
"We try to work with local organizations that have something to offer that would be helpful to our membership," says CultureWorks coworking manager Zach Lifton, "things that make people's lives easy."

Other perks for coworkers include discounted ZipCar rentals, and health club and farm share memberships.     
 
"The idea is that we're here to support people and not overcomplicate what they actually want to be doing," explains Lifton. "R-Health is one of those things that's easily understood, and it has the potential to work very well with the types of people who are here."
 
Writer: Dan Eldridge
Source: Zach Lifton, CultureWorks Greater Philadelphia
 

No insurance required: Direct primary care provider R-Health recently hung its shingle at 15th and Walnut Streets in Center City.

In some ways, direct primary care is simply a revived version of the old-school family doctor. It's a practice that provides basic, affordable primary care directly to consumers without the bureaucratic red-tape or expense of health insurance companies. In fact, DPC providers don't accept insurance at all. Instead customers either pay a monthly membership fee or pay cash for each visit. 

"Employers and individuals are really looking for innovative solutions when it comes to health care right now," says R-Health founder Mason Reiner. "The costs continue to rise. Quality and convenience is sort of suspect, at best. I think it's really a ripe time for health care innovation."  

R-Health offers a $79 monthly membership plan for individuals; there's no co-pay or deductible to speak of. (Participants often pair this coverage with a health savings account or high-deductible insurance plan, in case of emergency or major complications.) By doing away with the time-intensive paperwork required by insurance companies, doctors are able to spend as much as 30 to 60 minutes with each patient. R-Health physicians also make themselves available by phone, email and teleconference. 

The company currently has just seven employees -- four on the clinical team and three at the corporate level -- but R-Health's goal is to become the leading provider of direct primary care in the Mid-Atlantic region.

"We really believe that the key to improving health-care quality while also reducing costs is to put the physician-patient relationship back at the forefront of primary care," says Reiner.

Writer: Dan Eldridge
Source: Mason Reiner, R-Health