PULSE Finale 2018: An Inside Look into the Hub for Digital Health
By: Casey Samson
The Commonwealth is fostering a hub for digital health through PULSE@MassChallenge — an accelerator that convenes startups, Champions (industry partners), and the greater community to solve massive healthcare challenges. Joined by guests from a multitude of industries, the most start-up friendly accelerator in the world celebrated the top 6% of digital health startups from around the globe at PULSE Finale 2018.
Leaders in technology, life sciences, and digital health were brought together on Tuesday, June 5th at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center during “the BIO International Convention” to celebrate the top six percent of digital health startups world-wide at PULSE Finale. Over the past five months, the 2018 PULSE cohort and their health-industry Champions worked hard on demonstration projects that will result in real impact for patients. The startups in this year’s cohort sourced millions in revenue and funding during the program, highlighting the immediate demand for solutions within the health industry and continued economic support from both private and public sectors. The 2018 PULSE@MassChallenge Impact Report will include more details about their progress and will be available at the PULSE 2019 Application Launch in September.
PULSE continues to extend its reach into Massachusetts, breaking down traditional barriers that will make the Commonwealth the hub for digital health. With over 1,100 registered attendees gathered at PULSE Finale, approximately 7.4% of came from outside the U.S., including Germany, France, Thailand, Finland, Israel, Switzerland, China, and others. Over the course of the evening, PULSE awarded over $230K in no-equity cash prizes to the top digital health startups (see this year’s winners at the bottom of the post).
“As the lead state agency on the Massachusetts Digital Health Initiative, MeHI has been honored to work with our business and non-profit partners here in Massachusetts to support the rise of the digital health economy through programs like PULSE@MassChallenge,” explained Laurance Stuntz, Director of the Massachusetts eHealth Institute (MeHI).
Numerous announcements echoed the commitment to PULSE from partner organizations. MeHI and the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission announced they will double the Commonwealth’s annual commitment to PULSE, bringing the total investment to $340,000 in the next year. “A key reason for our support is PULSE’s unique program design… [because] this targeted mentorship leads to faster growth and pilot project opportunities, success which not only boost the startups themselves, but also continue to raise the Commonwealth’s stature as a global hub of digital health innovation,” Stuntz added. In addition to the Commonwealth, many of PULSE’s partners from the private sector renewed or expanded their commitments, including an announcement from Andy Miller, AARP’s Senior Vice President of Innovation, who shared that AARP increased its commitment to MassChallenge by partnering with both the PULSE program and the MassChallenge FinTech for the next three years. These additional commitments to PULSE directly align with the upward trend of funds allocated to the health industry.
Katya Hancock, Partner and Director of the StartUp Health Network, shared statistics surrounding the economy of digital health, including funding which has totaled over $44 billion since 2010. In only the first quarter of 2018, StartUp Health found that the digital health ecosystem is ever-growing and appealing to investors, that there are more deals closing at series B rounds or later, and that the opportunity for digital health reaches around the globe, with deals in Israel and China driving international growth. These findings illustrate the future of healthcare as one that is more immersed with technology, allowing leaders to have a greater understanding of where our current healthcare system falls short and will generate more impactful solutions and improve efficacy.
“We can’t rest on the state of our current healthcare system as being good enough,” explained Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, Karyn Polito, on stage at PULSE Finale. “The digital health economy is so critically important in advancing patient care and better connecting people to services and wellness.”
In addition to the state-sponsored interest in the digital health ecosystem, the 2018 PULSE program fostered support for women in digital health. The Lt. Governor announced an initiative that aims to increase the number of people in the workforce in Massachusetts by connecting more people to life sciences and digital health — one of the ways she aims to do that is through MassNextGen, focusing on women in particular. This program commits to awarding $1 million over the next five years to support women entrepreneurs in early-stage life science companies.
“The level of engagement and excitement from the community for Women in Digital Health has been overwhelming. 2018 is the year we take charge and put our plan into action,” Nina Kandilian stated. With a clear focus on female empowerment in the workplace, PULSE launched “Women in Digital Health”, and is committed “providing digital health entrepreneurs and innovation executives with resources, content and a supportive community to help them continue to develop the skills and confidence to lead.”
Throughout the evening, there were numerous occasions that highlighted PULSE’s continued support for women in digital health.
- Prior to the show, attendees were given the opportunity to meet with each of the startups during the “Startup Showcase,” 59% of which are female-founded!
- Throughout the show, there were a total of fifteen guest speakers, 60% of which were women.
- On stage, the MACP (Massachusetts Competitive Partnership) Women in Digital Health Award of $10,000 was presented to Nell Meosky Luo, Founder and CEO of Folia Health, celebrating her work throughout the PULSE program to empower family caregivers and chronic disease patients through technology.
In a Fireside Chat moderated by Siobhan Dullea, COO of MassChallenge, Carla Small, Sr. Director of the Innovation and Digital Health Accelerator at Boston Children’s Hospital, and Ana Maiques, CEO of Neuroelectrics and PULSE alum, offered their insights into the digital health industry and explained the added-value of partnerships with organizations like Boston Children’s Hospital for entrepreneurs. Maiques believes that “we need to foster partnerships and break the silos to build the future” — that means bringing together hospitals, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical companies to launch the most innovative ways that will transform the healthcare system. Boston Children’s Hospital is “taking the necessary steps to advance care,” says Carla Small, “which includes AI technology to help make critical healthcare decisions, voice technology in clinical settings, and augmented/virtual reality technology to allow for better patient experience.” Small also shared that Boston Children’s Hospital recently signed a contract with PULSE@MassChallenge company Medumo highlighting the promise of digital health technologies to improve the patient experience.
Partners HealthCare, which includes PULSE Champions Brigham and Women’s Health and Massachusetts General Hospital, announced that Medumo would “scale [its] digital care navigation pathways (CareTours™) in care access, patient-encounter preparation and follow-up, and many other clinical or administrative areas across Partners institutions.” This marks one of the first Partners-wide digital health implementations. Medumo CEO, Adeel Yang, shared in a release “Medumo would not be here today without PULSE.” Medumo added over 20 paying health systems, bolstered by the offers facilitated through PULSE matchmaking in 2017 and 2018.
The incorporation of technology in our healthcare system is a shift in the right direction, as evidenced by statistics of economic growth and patient impact; however, understanding where innovation is most needed is more of a challenge. Alexandra Drane, Cashier, Walmart; Co-Founder, ARCHANGELS and Eliza Corporation, explained why during her keynote speech.
Drane introduced what she calls “the emerging imperative” and left the audience to consider humanity and what it means to be human, including all of the thoughts, actions and feelings we encounter day-to-day. To illustrate why she was prompted to question humanity and understand what is overlooked in the current state of our healthcare system, Drane presented an example that highlighted the need for more attention on human-centered design for innovation in healthcare. She drew contrasts between your “Facebook self” and your “Google self” — the part that you project out to the world as someone holding everything together versus the introspective and personal part that might lead you to ask challenging questions regarding symptoms of psychological or physical states, respectively — to help us understand who we are designing and innovating for. Utilizing Maslow’s Hierarchy, Drane explained how psychological needs, safety needs for comfort, and basic needs for survival are too often left without any regard because our energy is put into peak experiences and self-actualization.
Issues that surround money, caregiving, sleep patterns, marriage, food, medical care, and electricity need attention and are a glaring reality that affect human experience, and, therefore, should be carefully considered as innovation continues to grow. With that, Drane took time away from her “bubble” as an executive to work as a cashier at Walmart to rediscover empathy and humanity. She felt that she could not adequately make an impact in patient’s lives without understanding empathy and humanity. Through her experience at Walmart, she has recognized the importance of hearing people’s stories and challenged the audience to “stand shoulder-to-shoulder, soul-to-soul with the very people whose problem we’re trying to solve”.
Alongside the female leaders who spoke throughout the evening were numerous speakers from Vertex Pharmaceuticals, the City of Boston, StartUp Health Network, Shire, Sunovion Pharmaceuticals, Mayo Clinic, among others. Champion organizations sponsored awards of $10K each, including The Sunovion Startup Choice Award, The Mayo Clinic People’s Choice Award, and The MACP Women in Digital Health Award.
Understanding how digital health innovators can maximize impact in the healthcare ecosystem and improve their knowledge of what the general population needs was a recurring theme throughout PULSE Finale. The list of attendees at PULSE Finale drew from a pool of diverse leaders in technology, healthcare, digital health, and government in the New-England region and globally and is just one example of the support for digital health in Massachusetts. Collaborative efforts are the hallmark of the digital health community because in order to address the challenges in healthcare, like chronic disease management and reducing medical costs, we must connect the dots between these siloed industries.
For more announcements from PULSE Finale, please read here.
Did you celebrate with us at PULSE Finale? We’d love to have your feedback on the event. Please fill out our survey here!
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2018 PULSE Finale Winners
Diamond Winner — $100K | Leuko Labs
Platinum Winner — $60K | InsightRx
Gold Winner — $40K | Fitly
The Sunovion Startup Choice Award | $10K | Medumo
The Mayo Clinic People’s Choice Award | $10K | Multisensor Diagnostics
The MACP Women in Digital HealthAward | $10K | Folia Health
Thank you again to our PULSE Finale Sponsors:
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Casey Samson
Program Operations Intern
PULSE@MassChallenge
