Rock Health welcomes 11 new startups for their fifth class

By Thuc Huynh, MD

Rock Health, the first seed accelerator specifically for health technology startups, has revealed their newest class for the 2013 season.  Eleven startups will have the chance of a lifetime receiving a slew of perks including $100,000 investment, free legal advice, free design help from Cooper Design, and mentorship from tech giants such as Microsoft, Genentech, the makers of Guitar Hero, and more.

This year's class had many services for providers and large healthcare organizations.  But there were a couple patient-centered groups.  To me, there was one company that stood out the most as a promising tool to change healthcare -- Fluid.  Fluid touts they can help people diagnose the flu in minutes, without the need for a doctor's visit.  But how?  A home kit with fluid analysis similar to a home pregnancy test?  A sophisticated question/answer algorithm?  Whatever the case, if it works and is easily accessible to all ranges of patients, then this could be a huge game-changer.  It could decrease unnecessary emergency room visits during the flu season saving a ton of money for the patient which would also decrease the risk of spreading the infection into already ill patients.  I am excited to see what they will bring to the table.

Without further ado, here are Rock Health's 11 startups :

1. Amplify Health - builds population management tools for at risk provider groups
2. Anapsis - a research platform and marketplace for scientific and statistical computing
3. Augmedix - service for medical doctors that's powered by Google Glass
4. CancerIQ - harnesses big data to accelerate personalized cancer care
5. CRIXlabs - builds software for de-risking drug development
6. Fluid - helps people diagnose the flu in minutes, without the doctor's visit
7. Lift Labs - makes active stabilization tools for people living with tremor
8. Sensentia - developing a new breed of intelligent systems for healthcare administration and operation
9. Smart Patients - an online community for motivated cancer patients and their caregivers
10. Spire - a wearable sensor that tracks both physical and psychological fitness to lower stress and increase productivity
11. ThriveOn - delivers mobile mental health programs from screen to treatment customized for every individual

For more information, read the release here.

Rock Health will be at the Apple Store San Francisco

Author: Thuc Huynh, MD

Rock Health was the first organization to nurture and grow health technology startups.  Startups receive $100,000 in investment funds and an immense amount of mentoring from successful business entrepneurs.  They're like Y Combinator but for Health only.

This December 4th at 7pm, Rock Health will be at the Apple Store in San Francisco along with several of their Startups from their current program to demo their latest projects.  It's a great way to get a sneak peek without attending the Rock health Demo Day or paying for a conference.

Here are the startups who will be attending :

Nephrosity - shares medical images on the iPad, giving doctors collaborative access to medical images anywhere, anytime.

Skimble - powers the mobile wellness movement with a cross-platform ecosystem of fun, dynamic, and social coaching applications.

Kaiser Permanente Joins Rock Health

In case you missed this last week, it's exciting to see that "Kaiser Permanente Joined Startup Accelerator Rock Health to Support Digital Innovation in Health Care."

Here's a brief snippet:

“As the largest integrated health care system in the United States and with 64 percent of our eligible members using digital health tools such as My Health Manager on kp.org, Kaiser Permanente is excited to support technology that empowers people to more effectively and conveniently manage their health,” said Wendy Lee, senior vice president and CIO chief of staff, Kaiser Permanente Digital Health Technology and Strategic Initiatives. “We look forward to partnering with Rock Health to further explore how we can bring health care into the digital age in ways that enhance the patient-clinician relationship.”

Kaiser Permanente joins Rock Health’s partners, which include the Mayo Clinic, Kleiner Perkins, Mohr Davidow, Aberdare Ventures, General Electric, Genentech, United Healthcare, University of California, San Francisco, Harvard Medical School and Nike.

This mobile app measures your heart rate by looking at you

Research from the MIT Media Lab has led to this mobile app called Cardiio - Touchless Camera Pulse Sensor.

Cardiio uses your phone’s front camera to analyze the amount of light reflected off of your face; it accurately measures your pulse without any extra hardware. Just hold your phone and look straight into the camera to get your reading, then check out the dashboard to see how it changes over time.

You can learn more here.

Submit your mobile health idea to Rock Health

Do you have a mobile health idea or startup that’s working to solve a health-related issue? Apply to join Rock Health, a group of dedicated individuals working to catalyze innovation in the interactive health space, and gain to access our unrivaled community of experts and seed-accelerator program.

Rock Health is the first seed-accelerator exclusively for health startups, providing capital, mentorship, operational support and office space in San Francisco.

Here's what they can offer:

• $20,000 startup grant to each team
• Expert medical support from the Mayo Clinic Center for Innovation, Harvard Medical School, UCSF, and Cincinnati Childrens Hospital
• Mentorship and weekly workshops from experts in design, health policy, lean startup methodology, financing, and more
• Office space in San Francisco
• Office hours with startup counsel lawyer Michael Esquivel and legal workshops with the Fenwick team
• Design strategy, workshop, and office hours with Cooper Design
• Support from our in-house staff
• A passionate community of like-minded individuals solving meaningful problems

You can submit your idea to Rock Health here.

Rock Health is a seed accelerator for health apps

Author: Thuc Huynh, MD

Innovation in health just got more interesting.

Technology incubators and accelerators have been around for several years now helping no-name startups become game-changing web applications.  Companies like Scribd, a web 2.0 based document sharing site and Disqus, a commenting platform for websites, had their start in little apartments with weekly mentorship lectures by successful tech-entrepreneurs.  Now, Disqus is the platform for over 700,000 websites including CNN and Techcrunch, and Scribd is valued at over $10 million dollars.

We've seen two health 2.0 companies born this way, Get Up and Move and DrChrono, but there hasn't been anything else.  Until now.

Rock Health is a new company that funds, mentors, and houses early stage startups focused on health applications.   The company has an impressive lineup of mentors including the makers of Guitar Hero, the founder of Sermo, and a lead designer at Facebook.  Their list of advisors is just as impressive.