Venture capitalists regard startups as investment opportunities, but to the entrepreneurs who are building new companies, the goal is to solve problems being faced by patients and providers..
This year's Venture+ Forum, part of the 2015 mHealth Summit, brings together several vetted digital health startups with some of healthcare's top VC experts, offering not only a look at some of the newer companies on the horizon but the digital health investment field as a whole. Following a round-table discussion on present and future trends, the startups get a chance to pitch their products in three minutes, with the top entrepreneurs moving on to a final pitch competition two days later on the mHealth Summit main stage.
[Learn more about the 2015 mHealth Summit.]
Among the competitors is Wellpepper, a Seattle-based startup with some Microsoft DNA that targets one of the more frustrating bottlenecks in healthcare – care coordination.
Anyone with a chronic condition knows the drill: Sheet after sheet of paper instructions that comprise a care plan, stapled together into a book or perhaps gathered in a file folder, sometimes updated after an appointment, sometimes stuffed into a desk drawer and forgotten, or left in the parking garage after a trip to the doctor's office.
It's just as frustrating for doctors as it is for patients, especially those in accountable care organizations who need evidence that their patients are following prescribed care plans.
Wellpepper, launched in 2012 by Mike Van Snellenberg and Anne Weiler, gathers all of those paper documents and other data onto an electronic platform, enabling patients to access care plans and receive alerts from their mobile device of choice. On the other side of the ledger, the doctor is able to update that platform and see which patients are following their care plans and which need a little push.
Wellpepper's been on a roll lately. Fresh off a successful year-long clinical trial conducted by Boston University on Parkinson's patients, the platform won the "I Am Not My Disease" Award at the Mayo Clinic's first-ever Think Big Challenge, earning a $50,000 award and one year of consulting services to move the product closer to market.
The platform, used by some 3,000 patients and in five university hospital research studies around the world, has also been chosen for a Harvard Medical School study focusing on preventing disability in at-risk seniors. The two-and-a-half-year study, in partnership with Boston University and Brandeis University, will involve 75 seniors, who'll be using the Wellpepper platform on their mobile devices to keep track of their home care plan and communicate with healthcare providers, who in turn will be modifying care plans online to keep patients engaged and address and healthcare concerns before they become serious.
Study organizers say some 45 percent of patients given follow-up care plans by their physicians don't follow through with those plans. In older patients, that lack of outpatient treatment leads to decreased mobility and increased healthcare costs – to the tune of about $42 billion by 2040.
"For older adults, a decline in mobility indicates a higher risk for disability, increased healthcare utilization and lower quality of life," Jonathan Bean, MD, associate professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School and Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital and the study's lead, said in a press release. "Spaulding's Live Long Walk Strong program can decrease this risk, and by adding a digital component with Wellpepper we believe we can cost-effectively supply even better extended care."
Weiler sees the Wellpepper platform as a sort of digital LEGO set for physicians, enabling them to assemble the building blocks of a care plan into a coherent platform that gives patients a set of tasks to follow. The personalized care plan promotes communication between the patient and the care team, increasing patient engagement and giving doctors the data they need to ensure or promote adherence.
She notes the Boston University study, the results of which will soon be published, demonstrated a 9 percent increase in mobility for patients with Parkinson's disease who used Wellpepper – a sharp reversal to studies that have found that Parkinson's patients generally experience a 12 percent decrease in mobility each year. That, she said, points to the effectiveness of a care plan that includes real-time adjustments and motivational tools delivered to patients in a format and on a device of their choosing.
"It's the mobile device we have a relationship with," Weiler points out. "We don't have that same relationship with our computer."
The Venture+ Forum takes place from 1-5 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 8, in the Potomac Ballroom C. The Finals will take place from 4-6 p.m. Tuesay, Nov.10 on the mHealth Summit Main Stage.,
The 2015 mHealth Forum, part of the HIMSS Connected Healh Conference, takes place Nov. 8-11 at the Gaylord National resort and Conference Center, just outside Washington D.C. For more information, click here.
