Category Archives: Innovation

Anish Sebastian and Babyscripts Are Showing the World That a Connected Pregnancy Is a Healthier Pregnancy

September 8, 2020Business, Health, Innovation, StartupsAnish Sebastian, baby care, babyscripts, childbirth, Digital Health, Juan Pablo Segura, Logan Plaster, postpartum care, pregnancy, pregnancy care, prenatal care, StartUp Health, womens healthStartUp Health

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 31:38 — 24.4MB)

On this episode we talk to Anish Sebastian, CEO and co-founder of Babyscripts. Founded by Sebastian and his business partner Juan Pablo Segura in 2014, Babyscripts uses connected health devices – like a bluetooth-enabled blood pressure monitor – and an app to help women have better pregnancies. OBGYNs, who prescribe the app to their patients, get a steady stream of data, helping them intervene early in cases of high blood pressure or other complications. And moms-to-be are given the tools to communicate with their doctor throughout their pregnancy. Babyscripts has been involved in more than 200,000 pregnancies and with every new provider partnership they sign, they open up access to high quality pre and post natal care. StartUP Health’s Logan Plaster caught up with Anish to get the latest.

Entrepreneurs: How to get investment from StartUp Health https://www.startuphealth.com/
Investors: How to invest in StartUp Health Moonshots http://www.healthmoonshots.com

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The Transformation of Digital Health in COVID Times

August 25, 2020Business, Health, Innovation, StartupsCovid 19, COVID19, Digital Health, Health Moonshot, Logan Plaster, moonshot, StartUp Health, Unity StoakesStartUp Health

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 24:08 — 18.6MB)

It’s late August, approximately six months since the coronavirus pandemic sent us indoors, stunted the economy and sparked a rapid global transformation in healthcare. To get a high-level retrospective on those six months and what this period in history means for health innovation going forward, we dialed up Unity Stoakes, Co-founder and President of StartUp Health.

Entrepreneurs: How to get investment from StartUp Health https://www.startuphealth.com/
Investors: How to invest in StartUp Health Moonshots http://www.healthmoonshots.com

One Health Transformer’s Decades-Long Journey to Cure Chronic Pain

August 18, 2020Business, Health, Innovation, StartupsAddiction, chronic pain, Cure Disease, Logan Plaster, mental health, neuromodulation, Richard Hanbury, Sana Health, Startup, StartUp Health, wearablesStartUp Health

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 34:30 — 25.9MB)

23 years ago a car accident left Richard Hanbury with debilitating nerve pain that was so bad he was given just five years to live. While in recovery, he realized that a film was doing something to his brain that was providing greater pain relief than the morphine he was prescribed. It was this accidental discovery that inspired Hanbury to learn how he could use external neuromodulation to hack his own brain and cure his chronic pain. In this episode, StartUp Health’s Editor-in-Chief Logan Plaster sits down with Hanbury, CEO & Founder of Sana Health, to discuss his wearable device that reproduces that same neuromodulation in an effort to end all chronic pain.

Entrepreneurs: How to get investment from StartUp Health https://www.startuphealth.com/
Investors: How to invest in StartUp Health Moonshots http://www.healthmoonshots.com

Livongo/Teladoc Merger Creates $37B Remote Health Company and Sets a New Standard for Digital Health Valuations.

August 11, 2020Business, Health, Innovation, Startups2020 StartUp Health Festival, Jennifer Schneider, Livongo, Livongo / Teladoc Health merger, Logan Plaster, merger, StartUp Health, StartUp Health Festival, Teledoc HealthStartUp Health

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:21 — 22.9MB)

A few months before Livongo and Teladoc Health inked a deal that valued Livongo at $18.5B, Jennifer Schneider, MD, MS, President of Livongo, took the stage at the StartUp Health Festival. Her telling of the company’s mission – to empower people with chronic conditions to live better and healthier lives – provides important context for the historic merger.

Entrepreneurs: How to get investment from StartUp Health https://www.startuphealth.com/
Investors: How to invest in StartUp Health Moonshots http://www.healthmoonshots.com

Pregnancy in the Time of COVID, With ROBYN Founder Alli Kasirer

August 4, 2020Business, Health, Innovation, StartupsAccess to care, Alli Kasirer, coronavirus, Covid 19, COVID19, Health Moonshot, Logan Plaster, moonshot, Pandemic Response, ROBYN, StartUp Health, womens healthStartUp Health

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 21:17 — 16.4MB)

Today’s podcast is a throwback to one of our favorite interviews from 2020 thus far. Back in early May, we linked up with Alli Kasirer, CEO of a company called Robyn, for an interview on StartUp Health TV. Robyn – online at we are robyn.co – is a digital health company that acts as a 21st century guide for aspiring, expecting and new parents. They cover everything from fertility coaching to infant sleep training, with a modern, tech-forward sensibility. When COVID hit, demand for virtual services for expectant and new parents skyrocketed, and Kasirer and her team stepped up to the challenge. If you want to watch the full conversation, you’ll find it on the Startup Health YouTube channel, at youtube.com/startuphealth.

Entrepreneurs: How to get investment from StartUp Health https://www.startuphealth.com/
Investors: How to invest in StartUp Health Moonshots http://www.healthmoonshots.com

Surviving the Pivot: How Two Founders Re-Shaped Their Business to Thrive in a Post-COVID World

July 28, 2020Business, Health, Innovation, Startups, UncategorizedAccess to care, jennifer meller, kavita mangal, Logan Plaster, NavimizeStartUp Health

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 46:02 — 35.1MB)

When the pandemic first hit, Dr. Jennifer Meller, CEO & Founder of Navimize, and CTO Kavita Mangal knew they were going to have to work fast. How could the duo utilize their existing platform, but adapt to the new conditions brought forth by COVID-19? To do this, says Meller, the team had to shift focus and channel their platform solely around the needs of their customers. In this StartUp Health NOW episode, Dr. Meller and Mangal share what held the company together at the start of the pandemic, and how they’ve repurposed their technology for the “new normal.”

Entrepreneurs: How to get investment from StartUp Health https://www.startuphealth.com/
Investors: How to invest in StartUp Health Moonshots http://www.healthmoonshots.com

Despite COVID-Constrained World, Digital Health Investor Predicts Promising Future in Telemedicine

July 21, 2020Business, Health, Innovation, Startups7Wire Ventures, Alyssa Jaffee, Bari Krein, Covid 19, COVID19, Digital Health, health innovation, investing, StartUp HealthStartUp Health

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 55:54 — 42.3MB)

Much has been said and written — here at StartUp Health and elsewhere — about how in healthcare there’s pre-COVID and there’s post-COVID. Regulations, reimbursements, consumer attitudes, and just basic human norms have shifted dramatically. Mass adoption of telemedicine has made headlines, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. In today’s podcast, we turned to Alyssa Jaffee, industry pro and VP at 7Wire Ventures, an early-stage venture fund headquartered in Chicago, to delve deeper into understanding those shifts and opportunities in digital health from an investor’s lens. The conversation you’ll hear is between Jaffe and Bari Krein, StartUp Health’s Chief Strategy Officer. It took place during a recent Expert Office Hour session that we hosted for the Health Transformers in the StartUp Health community, but Jaffe’s advice was so spot on and honest that we couldn’t help sharing it with a wider audience on the podcast.

Entrepreneurs: How to get investment from StartUp Health https://www.startuphealth.com/
Investors: How to invest in StartUp Health Moonshots http://www.healthmoonshots.com

StartUp Health’s 2020 Midyear Insights Report: A Conversation With Jonah Comstock

July 14, 2020Business, Health, Innovation, StartupsCovid 19, COVID19, Digital Health, health innovation, HIMMS, investing, Jonah Comstock, Logan Plaster, StartUp Health, Unity StoakesStartUp Health

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 36:06 — 58.4MB)

StartUp Health co-founder Unity Stoakes and editor in chief Logan Plaster talk health innovation funding trends with HIMSS Media editor-in-chief Jonah Comstock, a health tech journalist who has been covering the health innovation funding landscape for more than a decade. StartUp Health released its quarterly Insights report on July 1, 2020. The report confirmed that health innovation funding has remained on a strong upward trajectory despite of the market uncertainties created by the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, with $4.2B raised in Q2 2020, we find ourselves closing out the most-funded six-month period on record. In this episode, Comstock, Stoakes and Plaster discuss the market forces behind this apparent optimism, the importance of a global perspective on health innovation, and whether the current positive trend is likely to continue through the rest of 2020.

Entrepreneurs: How to get investment from StartUp Health https://www.startuphealth.com/
Investors: How to invest in StartUp Health Moonshots http://www.healthmoonshots.com

How Joint Academy CEO Jakob Dahlberg Is Transforming Osteoarthritis Care

July 7, 2020Business, Health, Innovation, StartupsAccess to care, arthritis, Cure Disease, Digital Health, digital therapy, health innovation, Jacob Dahlberg, Joint Academy, Joint pain, Nicole Clark, StartUp HealthStartUp Health

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 11:29 — 10.5MB)

According to the Arthritis Foundation, one in four Americans will develop hip or knee osteoarthritis in their lifetime. Experts suggest we have yet to reach a maximum fixed lifespan, creating an overwhelming demand for accessing treatment options that address joint pain and immobility.

One of StartUp Health’s rising stars. Jakob Dahlberg, Co-founder and CEO of the Swedish based telemedicine company Joint Academy, has created an interactive digital treatment program for arthritis. In this episode of StartUp Health NOW, Dahlberg talks about the companies mission, response to the current pandemic, and how creating a digital joint therapy platform is addressing a gap in healthcare.

Entrepreneurs: How to get investment from StartUp Health https://www.startuphealth.com/
Investors: How to invest in StartUp Health Moonshots http://www.healthmoonshots.com

Dr. Sandro Galea: Changing the Conversation Around Health

June 30, 2020Business, Health, Innovation, Startups, UncategorizedBoston University, Cure Disease, Digital Health, future of health, health equity, health innovation, Healthcare, Nicole Clark, sandro galeaStartUp Health

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:04 — 29.4MB)

To improve health, not just healthcare, we have to do the hard work of building a healthier world. And that, says Sandro Galea, MD, dean of the Boston University School of Public Health, starts with investing in preventative care infrastructures, not just in treatments. In this episode of StartUp Health NOW, Galea shares the inspiration for his book Well: What We Need to Talk About When We Talk About Health and urges us to think more deeply about the interconnected forces around us—from money and power to love and hate, compassion, fairness, and justice—and how they can lead to sustainable health.

Entrepreneurs: How to get investment from StartUp Health https://www.startuphealth.com/
Investors: How to invest in StartUp Health Moonshots http://www.healthmoonshots.com