Healthcare is the largest and one of the most important sectors in the US economy. Close to $4 trillion per year is spent on healthcare, that is, nearly one quarter of all US government spending.
At the same time, the sector is facing major challenges ranging from high costs and lack of transparency to privacy and accessibility issues, giving startups plenty of opportunities to revolutionize the world of healthcare. These companies play a critical role in improving the quality and efficiency of healthcare services.
Here we round-up the most innovative fastest growing healthcare startups in NYC.
Zocdoc
Mission
“Give power to the patient”
What it does
Zocdoc allows patients to connect directly to the care they need and book appointments online. You can browse doctors by criteria such as specialties, gender, language, office location, and appointment time. To make the choice easier, the database includes doctors’ educational backgrounds, services, photos, and user reviews. Thanks to Zocdoc’s insurance checker, you can make sure that your visit is covered while the check-in function allows you to fill out all the paperwork online before your appointment.
Zocdoc covers close to half the US population across two thousand cities and is used by more than 5 million patients every month. The service is available both as a mobile and web application in English and Spanish.
Why it’s innovative
Zocdoc provides patients the convenience of a quick and easy search for healthcare providers and online appointment booking without having to call the doctor’s office.
Fact sheet
Founding year: 2007
Founders: Oliver Kharraz and Nick Ganju
Leadership: Oliver Kharraz, CEO
Total funding: $225.9M
Company website: Zocdoc
Tempus
Mission
“Provide the necessary tools to usher in an era of precision medicine”
What it does
Tempus partners with medical centers and community healthcare systems to conduct genomic tests and subsequently organize and aggregate clinical data. This data is used in research projects to help understand patterns of a range of illnesses, from cancer to depression and Covid-19, and ultimately help identify appropriate cures. Tempus also curates and sells de-identified patient data to pharmaceutical companies that work on drug discovery.
Why it’s innovative
The startup is on a mission to redefine how genomic data is used in a clinical setting. It has created the world’s largest database of clinical and molecular data and developed an operating system that makes crucial information readily accessible for both patients, physicians, and researchers.
Fact sheet
Founding year: 2015
Founder: Eric Lefkofsky
Leadership: Eric Lefkofsky, CEO
Total funding: $620M
Company website: Tempus
Quartet Health
Mission:
“Improve the lives of people with mental health conditions through technology and services”
What it does
Quartet Health makes it easier to receive high-quality mental health care. Based on the view that mental health care is inseparable from general health care, the company created a platform to enable collaboration between a patient’s mental health provider and referring provider.
The platform matches users to the most suitable mental healthcare provider based on their preferences, clinical needs, and insurance. Care options include therapy and psychiatry, both in-person and virtual. The system also tracks users’ progress to ensure their health is effectively improving with each session.
Why it’s innovative
Quartet Health makes it easier for patients to navigate mental health care and provides tools and infrastructure to measure its quality.
Fact sheet
Founding year: 2014
Founders: Arun Gupta and Steve Shulman
Leadership: Arun Gupta, CEO
Total funding: $159.5M
Company website: Quartet Health
Flatiron Health
Mission
“Improve lives by learning from the experience of every cancer patient”
What it does
Flatiron Health is a platform dedicated to connecting oncologists, researchers, and hospitals with a goal to accelerate cancer research. Flatiron analyzes and aggregates oncology-specific medical data from an electronic record used by hundreds of medical practices for over 2 million cancer patients. The data includes information on what drugs patients take, how well they work, and what are the next treatment steps.
Flatiron Health collaborates with the largest cancer drug producers in the country who use the aggregated data to measure the effectiveness of various cancer drugs. The data also helps determine patient eligibility for cancer drug trials. The goal is to learn from the experience of each patient and speed up the development of new treatments.
In 2018, Flatiron Health was acquired by the pharmaceutical company Roche.
Why it’s innovative
Through their cloud-based, electronic health record (EHR), data analytics, and decision support software for cancer care providers, Flatiron Health transforms the way cancer is understood and treated.
Fact sheet
Founding year: 2012
Founders: Nat Turner and Zach Weinberg
Leadership: Nat Turner, CEO
Total funding: $313M
Company website: Flatiron Health
Galileo
Mission
“Make healthcare more effective and affordable for all, including the underserved”
What it does
Seeing a doctor face-to-face can be inconvenient and expensive. Galileo tries to solve this problem by offering affordable comprehensive healthcare from the convenience of your phone. The Galileo membership offers 24/7 access to healthcare professionals. It allows you to talk to a doctor, get a new prescription or refills, obtain referrals for specialists, and have your medical records digitized.
Galileo aims to provide accessible quality healthcare to all patients, including anyone underserved by the current health system, and individuals with more complex needs than what fits into a standard office visit. The service is available in ten states.
Why it’s innovative
As a telehealth platform, Galileo redefines the relationship between patients and doctors and makes it possible to easily access high-quality everyday care and ongoing care from a mobile device.
Fact sheet
Founding year: 2018
Founder: Thomas Lee
Leadership: Thomas Lee, CEO
Total funding: $245M
Company website: Galileo
Crossix
Mission
“To be the leader in life sciences, data and analytics”
What it does
Crossix is the leader in healthcare analytics. The startup partners with top health brands to maximize marketing effectiveness through robust analytics of health and non-health data, including claims, clinical, consumer, hospital, and media data. Crossix cloud-based platform and patented SafeMine technology allow real-time measurements and optimization of complex media campaigns aimed at patients and healthcare professionals.
Crossix was acquired by the cloud-computing company Veeva Systems in 2019.
Why it’s innovative
Crossix uses advanced data analysis to move towards a patient-centric healthcare system. The company has fundamentally changed the way brands plan and evaluate their advertising campaigns, bringing a new level of accountability and efficiency to media and marketing investments.
Fact sheet
Founding year: 2005
Founder: Asaf Evenhaim
Leadership: Asaf Evenhaim, CEO
Total funding: $106.7M
Company website: Crossix
Noom
Mission
“Create products that help people live healthier lives”
What it does
A popular health app used by close to 50 million subscribers, Noom is designed by behavioral psychologists, nutritionists, and personal trainers to help people worldwide lose weight, create healthier habits, and reduce the risk of chronic diseases. The app helps users to set small manageable goals, offers daily support and practical tips, healthy recipes, and progress tracking options.
The app is best known for its weight loss and diabetes prevention programs, but it also features prehypertension, hypertension, and diabetes management plans. One of Noom’s greatest strengths is real-life coaches who help users set achievable personalized goals, measure their progress, and keep them accountable.
Why it’s innovative
Noom is scientifically proven to help users lose weight and keep it off by focusing on making tangible and sustainable lifestyle shifts rather than major dietary changes.
Fact sheet
Founding year: 2008
Founders: Artem Petakov and Saeju Jeong
Leadership: Saeju Jeong, CEO
Total funding: $106.7M
Company website: Noom
Talkspace
Mission
“Provide more people with convenient access to licensed therapists who can help those in need live a happier and healthier life”
What it does
Talkspace offers convenient and affordable therapy online. You can easily connect with an extensive network of professional licensed therapists from the comfort of your home through their website or mobile app. Talkspace offers access to thousands of professionals who cover a broad range of mental health services including cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectical behavioral therapy, psychodynamic, and mindfulness. There is no need to set up appointments, and the service is anonymous.
Based on the information you provide, you are paired with a psychotherapist or, if you prefer, you can select one from the options suggested by a matching algorithm. For a monthly fee, you can exchange unlimited text messages with the therapist. The platform also supports audio and video messaging. In addition, Talkspace analyzes anonymized transcripts of therapy sessions in order to improve its services.
Why it’s innovative
The company has revolutionized the mental health industry by using machine learning and artificial intelligence to make therapy accessible to everyone.
Fact sheet
Founding year: 2012
Founders: Oren Frank and Roni Frank
Leadership: Oren Frank, CEO
Total funding: $106.7M
Website: Talkspace
TrialSpark
Mission
“Bring treatments to patients faster and more efficiently by reimagining the clinical trial process”
What it does
Clinical research trials for new drugs and disease treatments are usually very expensive, slow, and limited in scope. TrialSpark addresses all of these problems. It tries to make clinical trials available to a diverse population outside of major cities and universities, creating more opportunities and helping accelerate the drug development process.
TrialSpark works directly with drug developers, healthcare professionals, and patients. It oversees all aspects of clinical research from recruitment and set-up to maintenance and completion. The company helps bring clinical trial information to the offices of local doctors who can offer patients access to an experimental treatment. They use technology to identify relevant patients and help equip doctors with the necessary tools and infrastructure to run clinical trials more efficiently.
Why it’s innovative
TrialSpark was created to bridge the gap between medical research and patients who can benefit from clinical trials. It makes clinical trials widely available and increases diversity and the affordability of treatments.
Fact sheet
Founding year: 2014
Founders: Benjamine Liu, Kit Dobyns, and Linhao Zhang
Leadership: Benjamine Liu, CEO
Total funding: N/A
Company website: TrialSpark
Pager
Mission
“Simplify access to care by providing consumers with a single entry point into the healthcare ecosystem”
What it does
Pager is a mobile app that facilitates communication between patients and healthcare providers. The platform makes it easy to find a local doctor, schedule virtual consultations, talk to a doctor online, share information, and manage data from a smartphone or tablet. Other features include referral management, prescription and lab-test management, house calls, and transportation arrangements.
Physicians on their end can use the Pager app to share electronic health records across their network, manage appointments, and monitor patient care. Using application tools, artificial intelligence, and integrated data feeds, the platform facilitates collaboration and coordination among doctors, nurses, pharmacists, case managers, health advocates, care coordinators, and customer support representatives.
Why it’s innovative
Pager enables a better and more efficient connection between doctors and patients. It strives to make healthcare easier to navigate, more accessible, and more responsive. The app empowers patients and completely transforms the way they interact with healthcare, a process that is often complicated and confusing.
Fact sheet
Founders: Gaspard de Dreuzy, Philip Eytan, and Oscar Salazar
Founding year: 2014
Leadership: Walter Jin, CEO
Total funding: $62.6M
Company website: Pager
Simplifeye
Mission
“Create an immersive clinical environment where medical providers are surrounded by the information and data they need to deliver the best patient care”
What it does
Simplifeye is a live web chat service used by thousands of dental and medical websites throughout the country. It allows healthcare professionals to consult patient medical information at any time and get notifications that the patients are ready for their exam, for example.
Although the software exists as a web-based dashboard, its major advantage is that it can be connected to wearables like the Apple Watch. This gives doctors and dentists instant access to the information they need without having to log into a desktop application. Simplifeye offers additional features such as a performance analytics tool that analyzes average procedure times to improve efficiency, as well as a HIPAA-compliant video conferencing functionality.
Simplifeye web chat conversations are managed on behalf of practices by a dedicated team of “chatters” who are experts with experience in the dental and medical fields. The service is available 24/7 in nine different languages and you can expect to get a response in less than 8 seconds.
Why it’s innovative
Through its cutting-edge software technology, Simplifeye digitizes and automates the administrative side of healthcare professionals’ practice. By making patient data easily accessible, it increases the productivity of doctors’ and dentists’ offices.
Fact sheet
Founding year: 2015
Founder: Ryan Hungate
Leadership: Ryan Hungate, CEO
Total funding: $3M
Company website: Simplifeye
Amplicare
Mission
“Help pharmacists promote better health outcomes for their patients”
What it does
Amplicare helps pharmacists improve patient care. The platform enables pharmacies who subscribe to the service to easily communicate with patients and promote better health while staying profitable. The Amplicare Connect function allows pharmacists to create outbound refills and Amplicare Restore identifies over-the-counter products that a patient might benefit from. Operating at the intersection of technology and healthcare, the startup seeks to make healthcare more open, transparent, and accessible.
In September 2020, Amplicare merged with the pharmacy software provider FDS.
Why it’s innovative
Thanks to Amplicare, the role of pharmacists can expand beyond dispensing prescriptions into the clinical and business side of healthcare. With over five thousand participating pharmacies, Amplicare is an unrivaled platform that increases patient retention, boosts performance, and makes it possible for pharmacists to diversify their revenue streams.
Fact sheet
Founding year: 2012
Founders: Matthew Johnson and Nathan Shanor
Leadership: J. Bennet Waters, President
Total funding: $24.3M
Company website: Amplicare
StartUp Health
Mission
“Collaborate with entrepreneurs to improve the health and wellbeing of everyone in the world”
What it does
StartUp Health is on a mission to support digital health startups. It helps entrepreneurs connect to resources, expertise, and capital to create innovative solutions and transform the health industry. StartUp Health allows founders to build sustainable businesses by providing all the necessary support structures, courses, a collaborative peer network, and access to potential partners, customers, and mentors. The company has the world’s largest health innovation portfolio and has already invested in over 340 innovative health companies in 26 countries across six continents.
Why it’s innovative
StartUp Health has a uniquely sustainable investment model. It is the only global organization that invests in entrepreneurs at every stage of their growth.
Fact sheet
Founding year: 2011
Founders: Steven Krein and Unity Stoakes
Leadership: Steven Krein, CEO
Total funding: $24.3M
Company website: StartUp Health
Doctor.com
Mission
“Helping healthcare organizations deliver a better customer experience at every step of the digital patient journey”
What it does
Doctor.com enables physician offices and hospitals to manage their practices online. They can display provider profiles, book appointments, and publish patient reviews. Thousands of healthcare organizations are relying on Doctor.com’s integrated platform to enhance the patient experience in everything from searching for local healthcare professionals to booking appointments and rating their experience. Used by more than 100 million patients every month, Doctor.com helps healthcare organizations to increase their digital presence and credibility and thus gain patient trust.
Why it’s innovative
Doctor.com is the first marketing automation platform built specifically for healthcare organizations. This is the only solution in the healthcare industry that seamlessly integrates listings management, provider data, online scheduling, telemedicine, patient communications, and user ratings.
Fact sheet
Founding year: 2012
Founder: Andrei Zimiles
Leadership: Andrei Zimiles, CEO
Total funding: $18.2M
Company website: Doctor.com
Call9
Mission
“Do right by the patient and all else will fall into place”
What it does
Call9 is used in nursing homes as an alternative to calling 911. In an emergency, Call9 trained Clinical Care Specialists employed by nursing homes can activate a video conferencing software on an iPad. Within moments, a patient will get connected with a board-certified emergency medicine physician.
The Call9 system includes a full suite of on-site diagnostics such as bedside ultrasound, 12-lead EKGs, telemetry, pacing, vital signs, electronic stethoscope, and on-site CHEM8 lab work. The results are immediately transferred to the Call9 provider for analysis.
The Call9 virtual telehealth platform helps patients remain in nursing homes instead of sending them to the emergency room in more than 80% of cases. It helps avoid having patients unnecessarily hospitalized, at the same time allowing for huge savings on medical expenses.
Why it’s innovative
Call9 provides immediate access to affordable, high-quality care for the most vulnerable and highest cost patient population in the country.
Fact sheet
Founding year: 2015
Founders: Timothy Peck, Celina Tenev, and XiaoSong Mu
Leadership: Timothy Peck, CEO
Total funding: $34M
Company website: Call9
ZipDrug
Mission
“Make it easy for everyone to get their medications on demand, when and where they want them”
What it does
ZipDrug allows seniors to have medications delivered right to their homes by the participating low-cost pharmacies. The goal of this innovative startup is to make the process of getting medicines more convenient and cheaper for seniors.
All the user needs to do is download the ZipDrug app, request delivery, and pay for the purchase. The pharmacy will then dispatch a HIPAA-trained ZipDrug messenger to deliver the prescription. The company uses the health plan’s data to target customers who don’t have cost-effective prescriptions. All available discounts are automatically applied as part of the service, and the pharmacy will inform customers of any cost-saving alternative therapies.
ZipDrug partners with 200 independent pharmacies and works with Medicare Advantage health plans that cover over 5 million members. The startup was acquired by IngenioRx in 2020.
Why it’s innovative
ZipDrug focuses on simplifying and improving the quality of pharmacy services for seniors and strives to make medication costs transparent.
Fact sheet
Founding year: 2015
Founders: Stu Libby, Kyro Beshay, and Webster Ross
Leadership: Stu Libby, CEO
Total funding: $13.4M
Company website: ZipDrug
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