Incubator picks nine health IT startups for mentoring program

Information technology incubator DreamIt Ventures announced the selection of the next nine health IT startups for a four-month mentoring program in Baltimore. The program is a partnership with Kaiser Permanente, Johns Hopkins University, Northrop Grumman Corp. and BioHealth Innovation, a Rockville, Md.,-based not-for-profit consortium to promote commercialization of health research.

The invitees include five Baltimore companies (listed with their specialties):

• Aegle, wearable biometric devices
• Avhana, next-generation clinical-decision support for the electronic health record
• eMOCHA, mobile capture of data for medication adherence and clinical trials
• Protenus, digital management of patient consent and other administrative workflows
• The Smartphone Physical, integration and distribution of clinically relevant mobile health devices

Other invitees came from elsewhere in the U.S. and abroad:

• Patient Feed, Pittsburgh and New York, collaboration tool for inpatient care
• Cognuse, Estonia, cognitive rehabilitation of stroke and traumatic brain injury patients through mobile games
• Respi, Greece, smartphone-based spirometry and respiratory data platform
• Phobious, Spain, treatment of behavioral health issues through mobile, augmented reality.

Health program participants can receive up to $50,000 in seed funding per company along with hands-on mentoring, free legal services and the opportunity to connect with people in the healthcare industry through the liaisons with Kaiser and Johns Hopkins they wouldn't otherwise have access to, according to Dr. Elliot Menschik, a DreamIt managing partner and health IT entrepreneur.

“They're more connected and we remove as many obstacles as possible for them to becoming a success,” Menschik said. “We really tell them that we think we can help them in four months achieve what it would otherwise take 12 or 24.”

DreamIt Ventures opened its first healthcare IT industry incubator in Philadelphia last year with 10 startups and Penn Medicine and Independence Blue Cross as partners. It plans to host another incubator in the City of Brotherly Love later this year, Menschik said. DreamIt was named by Forbes magazine as one of the top 10 business incubators in 2012.

“We look forward to working with these very promising new healthcare technology companies where we can provide access to industry leading health professionals and a real world laboratory to test the usability and effectiveness of next generation technology solutions” said Kim Horn, president of the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of the Mid-Atlantic States, in a news release.

Follow Joseph Conn on Twitter: @MHJConn