Breaking Health

In this dual podcast, we talk with leaders from the American Heart Association, Philips, UPMC, and Aphelion Capital about Cardeation Capital, a new venture fund aimed at funding start-ups in the digital health and medtech fields. How did the four entities join forces? What can they offer start-ups looking to disrupt healthcare? For more information go to aphelioncapital.net. You can also learn more about Aphelion Capital, the firm managing the fund, in this Medtech Talk Podcast. We also highlight one of its first investments, ExplORer Surgical in this Breaking Health Podcast.

Founder and CEO Joel Wishkovsky created Simple Contacts’ phone-based app to save contact lens wearers time and money when they need a new supply of lenses but not a new prescription. Ophthalmologists are funding the company and conducting the remote examinations. But the firm isn’t seen favorably by optometrists, who stand to lose a steady stream of business.

MedCrypt CEO Mike Kijewski is playing a long game. At the moment, he recognizes Medtech execs aren’t placing a high priority on cybersecurity of their devices. But as technology becomes more advanced – and hospitals grow more wary – he expects demand will grow. The time is coming for Medtech to take a cue from the iPhone, he says.

Verana Health, formerly known as DigiSight, is hoping to partner with clinical societies to build a deep cache of EHR data for pharma and medtech companies. The firm already is working with the American Academy of Ophthalmology, making its IRIS database available to commercial partners. Verana expects to create similar relationships with other clinical societies.

CareZone manages a mobile app that enables users to keep their medications, health information, and contacts all in one place. CEO Jonathan Schwartz shares the company’s origin (and early contact with PillPack, now an Amazon company).

In this week’s Breaking Health Podcast, Anita Pramoda, CEO of Owned Outcomes, digs deep into the joint venture between her company and Vizient Inc. Ediom, LLC, a cognitive computing and data science company solely focused on the needs of health care.

In this week’s Breaking Health Podcast, recently installed Aetion CEO Carolyn Magill visits with BH host Steve Krupa to share the value-based healthcare story that helped the company raise $36.4 million in a Series B from investors including New Enterprise Associates.

Co-founder Pierre-Jean Cobut shares the story of Spry Health, the developer of the Loop wristband that will continuously track the Vital Signs of chronically ill patients while they’re living life outside the hospital. “Care is moving to the home,” Cobut says. “But you can’t do that without knowing what is happening to people.” Hear where Spry sees opportunity in healthcare and how the FDA factors into its plan.

Curisium CEO Peter Kim explains how his start-up will use blockchain technology to help payers, providers, and life science companies to engage in innovative payment agreement tied to patient care. Nearly a third of the payments in the $3 trillion US healthcare market are already tied to some form of innovative payment model. The company recently raised $3.5 million in seed financing from Flare Capital Partners, New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Shuttle Fund, Sanofi Ventures, and Green Bay Ventures.

Entrepreneur. Corporate Leader. Venture Capitalist. Owner of Multiple Dogs. Nancy Brown once wanted to be a veterinarian, but instead she followed an atypical path to healthcare where she found success early and often. Now as a partner at one of healthcare’s top firms, Oak HC/FT.