Digital Health Pilot Projects Win $300K From ONC

By Megan Williams, contributing writer

HealthIT.gov announced six winners of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT’s (ONC’s) first Market R&D Pilot Challenge. The winners will live-test new Health IT apps in real healthcare settings that will be administered by their challenge partners.

The blog post announcing winners directly addresses the need for encouragement around startups entering into and innovating in the field of healthcare:

“Innovation in the U.S. health care system requires not only action from the largest private stakeholders and appropriate involvement by federal and state governments, but also the entry of new businesses that disrupt the status quo by focusing on the most important stakeholder of all — the patient. However, startups can have difficulty finding partners in real-life care settings where they can test their products and learn how they are used by actual customers.”

The program woks to “break down the barriers” that lie between startups and healthcare stakeholders in an effort to help fledgling HIT companies and existing healthcare organizations that would be open to hosting pilot programs, all the while encouraging technologies that improve consumer engagement and care coordination.

The Winning Teams

The winning teams, their partners, and projects are as follows:

• ClinicalBox And Lowell General Hospital. This startup develops software that aids in coordination and patient engagement in the surgical sphere. CoordinationBox tracks patient progress through the care delivery process in a visual format that presents critical tasks that providers need to complete. The platform also facilitates communication and connection with the patient through a visual overview of the stages of their care process as well as providing them with task lists and educational materials. Their pilot will test CoordinationBox’s efficacy in achieving these goals.
• CreateIT Healthcare Solutions And MHP Salud. MyCare Communicator is another platform focused on patient engagement, but with a focus on a “culturally, economically, and technologically diverse patient population.” It enables care givers to communicate with patients in their native tongue and pass along educational material and clinically relevant messages via email, SMS, and automated voice. It will be piloted at MHP Salud in the Texas Rio Grade Valley.
• Gecko Health Innovations And Boston Children’s Hospital. mHealth gets attention via Gecko Health Innovations’ CareTRx. Their winning platform uses medication sensors, mobile apps, and cloud computing to addressing disease management of respiratory conditions and asthma patients. It records medication use, tracks symptoms, shares reports with care coordinators, and sends reminders out. They will be working with Boston Children’s Hospital and the effectiveness on asthma self-management among urban school children will be evaluated.
• Optima Integrated Health And University of California, San Francisco, Cardiology Division. Optima4BP incorporates the cloud and artificial intelligence in their solution that evaluates hypertensive patients and makes personalized decision recommendations for medication changes. It analyzes data and calculates percentage improvement of potential treatment changes over a patient’s current treatment. It will be evaluated at UCSF’s Cardiology Division and will be integrating with its EMR.
• physIQ And Henry Ford Health System. Data analytics is featured in physIQ’s offering that transforms biodata collected by sensors into meaningful insight. It incorporates both machine learning physiology analytics and disposable wearables that aid in tracking exacerbations of chronic conditions. Henry Ford Health System will be evaluating the platform and its ability to reduce hospital readmissions for heart failure and COPD patients.
• Vital Care Telehealth Services And Dominican Sisters Family Health Service. Vital Care has created the Senior Total Population Assisted Telehealth Services program, which connects senior populations to preventative care and chronic disease management program through telehealth solutions. It will be tested at Shinnecock Indian Health Services Clinic on the reservation on eastern Long Island and will evaluate improvement in increasing access to primary and secondary prevention services.