Health - Startup Digest - April 14th - April 21st

Health April 14, 2017 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. Quote of the Week "Whether a digital therapeutic involves a tracking sensor or coaching though an app, the biggest question is whether they provide a distinct, measurable medical benefit. One startup calling itself a digital therapeutics company is Virta Health, based in San Francisco. The company raised $37 million in March. Its goal is to actually "reverse" diabetes without drugs or surgery using online coaching to get people on a special diet high in fats and low on carbs. It has a study by Indiana State University to back up the claim—about half of the 262 people with type 2 diabetes enrolled in a 10-week trial were able to reduce their blood glucose levels to non-diabetic ranges." - Chrissy Farr, MIT Tech Review Health Startup Digest is curated by: R. Scott Munro - MBA Candidate at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business Contact R. Scott Munro at scott.munro@startupdigestmail.com Final Week To Save $1,200 On TechCrunch Disrupt NY Tickets TechCrunch’s Disrupt NY conference is filling up fast. The May 15-17 conference is bringing together the best startups, investors, and entrepreneurs for three full days of tech. TechCrunch’s Early Bird Ticket pricing ends after this week. Save a total of $1,200 when you use promo code “TECHSTARS200” on your attendee ticket. How U.S. Health Care Became Big Business Terry Gross - NPR This is a great interview with Dr. Elisabeth Rosenthal on why healthcare costs are so high in the United States. This is a topic near and dear to me, and she does offer some interesting explanations, but none of them are adequate. Her points on pricing miss the point, I think, especially when you look at the breakdown of HC costs in the United States. Either way, I'd give the interview a listen. Prescription-Drug Shortages Help Push Up Prices of Similar Drugs Peter Loftus - WSJ Drug prices have been a huge focus of debate lately (despite being a fairly small portion of overall healthcare spending). This WSJ piece goes over some new research from NEMJ around shortages in some drugs causing price spikes in generics. The issue here isn't the rising prices, but the shortages in the first place (usually due to manufacturing issues). Thus, the real fix is preventing shortages NOT pricing regulation as one might assume. 2017 Healthcare Prognosis Venrock Vennrock interviewed a few hundred folks with expertise in healthcare and health IT, and aggregated their findings in this report. It's full of great factoids, tidbits, and gives you a general sense for how folks think the landscape will change from shifts in the ACA, to consolidation. Strategies that can get Startups from Pilot to Scale Chuck Feerick - Medcity News I have no doubt that health tech has a "pilot" problem. Startups sell pilots left and right, but never convert those pilots into paying customers. This creates a growing number of zombie companies with no real prospects. This Medcity piece talks about how to convert those pilots into real customers. Can "Digital Therapeutics" Be as Good as Drugs? Chrissy Farr - MIT Tech Review Digital therapeutics are all the rage right now, from diabetes management to "connected" pills. Chrissy Farr wrote this MIT Tech Review article that provides a solid overview of the different players in the space, as well as trends. If you've heard names like Omada Health or Welldoc, and want to see what else is out there in terms of digital therapeutics, I highly recommend taking a read. SVHealth April Meetup SVHealth The April meeting for the Silicon Valley Chapter of Health 2.0 will feature three start-ups (Spryfit, Simple Habit, and Simply Vital Health), as well as keynote speaker Rebecca Woodcock, EIR and Venture Partner at 500 Startups. Join them on Tuesday, April 18th at Plug and Play Tech Center in Sunnyvale, CA from 6 PM - 9 PM. The Techstars Company Taking Aim at Assault After hearing from 100s of survivors that their assaults began with a bad feeling, Revolar designed a disruptive solution. At the first sign of trouble, a few clicks of Revolar’s quarter-sized “Instinct” wearable can notify friends and family of your live GPS location and safety status via texts and emails. Learn more about Revolar’s mission and preorder their new Instinct wearable here. Manage Subscription Submit Event Submit Resource View in Browser 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, © 2009-2017 by Techstars Central LLC. All rights reserved. Startup Digest is a registered trademark of Techstars Central, LLC. Privacy Policy | Terms of Use.

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