Health Reading List | January 22, 2016 |
Startup Highlight: Save On Medical
There are a number of companies that are trying to make cost transparency easy for patients (which is no small task and a nut no one has really been able to crack). Save On has a fairly intuitive way for patients to quickly search for cheaper options, the big question will be: Can they create (or partner with an insurance provider to create) an incentive structure to make sure patients actually use their system.
As always, if you come across news, announcements, videos, or podcasts that you think everyone else would benefit from, e-mail me at scott.munro@startupdigestmail.com or tweet @R_Scott_Munro. | Set Your Startup Apart with Startup Next, a Techstars Program  Get 1:1 mentorship and hone in on your pitch, product-market fit, funding and more. Startup Next is a free 5-week program, with plenty of post program value adds that will put you one step ahead of other startups. Access thousands of mentors, founders, and investors all while preparing for seed funding or applying to an accelerator. Subscribe to find out when Startup Next is accepting applications! | | Brennan Spiegal is one of the most realistic advocates for digital health (a term that can be met with disdain from practicing physicians). He tempers his excitement for the future of health care technology with the realities of patient care, physician demands, and the world of health care. Check out the biggest complaints he hears regarding digital health from practicing physicians, and his responses. | | There are a number of potential issues with DTC genetic testing: our lack of real insights into efficacy, potential harmful long term impacts of certain tests, etc. This article takes on a very small segment of DTC testing: Tests for "athletic ability" which are even more iffy than most. A fascinating read. | | I absolutely hate the "10,000" steps metric. It's the worst, at best it gets people to move more without any critical thought as to what sort of exercise we're doing, at worst it actively hurts our health outcomes.
This WSJ piece goes into another metric created by MIO called the "Personal Activity Intelligence" number which takes a more holistic approach to activity tracking. It's all really a stop gap until we have implants that track true fitness levels, food intake, etc.
| | "A new class of small, thin electronic sensors can monitor temperature and pressure within the skull - crucial health parameters after a brain injury or surgery - then melt away when they are no longer needed, eliminating the need for additional surgery to remove the monitors and reducing the risk of infection and hemorrhage." No need for me to wax poetic about the importance of internal biosensors for this, I think you'll get the point. | | "Susannah Fox, CTO at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, talks about the many programs and initiatives within HHS; and inspiring entrepreneurs to focus on innovating within underserved communities." | | "We spoke to Russell Jones, partner with Deloitte & Touche, cyber risk leader for the firm's State of California Practice and co-leader of the firm's medical device safety and security practice, about the FDA actions, how these connected devices can be exploited by hackers, and what medical device makers can learn from industries that have already faced these issues." | | I don't usually include funding news in the digest, but this is egregious. As Christina Farr pointed out, Oscar would be valued at 3B with 125k members... Health Net has 6M members and a 6B valuation... some funny math there. | | | You are receiving this email because you believe that the best startup articles and videos are made by active members of the startup community. Startup Digest, © 2009-2016 by Techstars Central LLC. All rights reserved. Startup Digest is a registered trademark of Techstars Central, LLC. Privacy Policy. | | |
