Tag Archives: Health Transformer

Luis Santiago on How a Recent Team Tragedy Brought PEGASI’s Health Moonshot Into Focus



Every company in the StartUp Health portfolio can draw a line between their business objectives and a very real human impact. Even companies working on highly technical, administrative solutions are doing so, at the end of the day, in order to help people get the care they need faster or better. Our stance is that no database integration, supply chain management tool, or insurance platform should exist apart from its ability to improve lives. In other words, health innovation is personal.

For some founders, like our guest today, the human face of healthcare technology is startlingly clear. Our guest is Luis Santiago, the CEO and Co-founder of PEGASI, which StartUp Health backed in 2020. PEGASI is in the business of digitizing health information systems in Latin America, and they’re currently focused on upgrading those systems within oncology so that cancer patients can get diagnosed and treated sooner. That mission gained a tragic level of clarity this year as PEGASI’s CTO Janper Garbi went through a devastating battle with cancer. Luis Santiago shares that personal story, and how it could have ended differently had the hospital been using a digital platform to speed up diagnosis and treatment.

This isn’t just a story about what could have been, but how a tragedy becomes fuel for a health moonshot that could improve the lives of millions.

Learn more and connect with the team a PEGASI.

Entrepreneurs: How to get investment from StartUp Health startuphealth.com

Investors: How to invest in StartUp Health Moonshots healthmoonshots.com
Want more content like this? You can subscribe to the podcast as well as other health innovation updates at startuphealth.com/content.
Sign up for StartUp Health Insider™ to get funding insights, news, and special updates delivered to your inbox.


KP Yelpaala of InOn Health: Health Equity Isn’t Just the Right Thing to Do, It’s Also Good for Business



Today’s guest is Kaakpema “KP” Yelpaala, the CEO and Co-founder of InOn Health, a StartUp Health portfolio company that delivers patient engagement solutions with an emphasis on cross-cultural communication. This conversation you’ll hear is pulled from a Fireside Chat at the StartUp Health Festival @ ViVE and is hosted by Katya Hancock, a partner at StartUp Health. The two discuss KP’s work at InOn Health, which centers around health literacy and patient communication. And they also dig into health equity – an area of particular passion and focus for KP – to try to get beyond the hype and the buzzwords. They tackle the question: what is it going to take to break down barriers and open up access to care for all people? For one thing, he says, we have to realize that health equity isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s also good for business.

Learn more and connect with the team at InOn Health.

Entrepreneurs: How to get investment from StartUp Health startuphealth.com

Investors: How to invest in StartUp Health Moonshots healthmoonshots.com
Want more content like this? You can subscribe to the podcast as well as other health innovation updates at startuphealth.com/content.
Sign up for StartUp Health Insider™ to get funding insights, news, and special updates delivered to your inbox.

 


Live From the Conflict Zone: How David Sarabia of inRecovery Is Supporting His Team in Ukraine



This week, we talk with David Sarabia, the CEO and Founder of inRecovery, a StartUp Health-backed company that brings digital health tools to the addiction recovery market.

David was on vacation in Mexico when he saw the headlines: Ukraine was under attack and Russian forces were moving in on the capital. After the initial shock of the news wore off, David snapped into action. He’d spent a good deal of time in Ukraine, cultivating a development team there for his startup. And now his team was in trouble. So instead of taking his flight back to California, he booked a ticket to Poland. He had no plan and few connections, just a desire to help.

David has been on the ground in Krakow now for more than month, organizing supply runs into Ukraine while still running his company. When we heard about the important work he was doing we tracked him down for an interview. Exhausted but encouraged by the strength of the Ukrainian people, he shares a bit about the work he’s doing and how others can help.

Connect with the team at inRecovery via email.

Entrepreneurs: How to get investment from StartUp Health startuphealth.com

Investors: How to invest in StartUp Health Moonshots healthmoonshots.com
Want more content like this? You can subscribe to the podcast as well as other health innovation updates at startuphealth.com/content.
Sign up for StartUp Health Insider™ to get funding insights, news, and special updates delivered to your inbox.


How Lazurite Scored Rapid FDA Approval for Their Wireless Surgical Camera



In health innovation, sometimes the eureka moment that sparks a business is subtle. Maybe you’re a physician clicking away on an electronic health record and it dawns on you that you could do the same thing with fewer clicks. An idea is born.

At other times, inspiration smacks you in the face. Or, as in the case of Eugene Malinskiy, the CEO & Co-founder of Lazurite (a StartUp Health company since 2017), smacks someone else. In this podcast, we’ll hear how a fateful day in the operating room set Malinskiy on a multi-year journey of creating the world’s first wireless minimally invasive camera system for use in the OR. The big challenge, as he’ll explain, was getting a powerful enough light system into the unit. This month, Malinskiy and his team celebrated the milestone of receiving FDA clearance for their ArthroFree camera, so we caught up with them to hear the latest.

We also hit Malinskiy up for some practical advice on navigating the FDA process. One tip? Find and invest in an experienced regulatory partner early in the process.

Learn more and connect with the team at Lazurite.

Entrepreneurs: How to get investment from StartUp Health startuphealth.com

Investors: How to invest in StartUp Health Moonshots healthmoonshots.com
Want more content like this? You can subscribe to the podcast as well as other health innovation updates at startuphealth.com/content.
Sign up for StartUp Health Insider™ to get funding insights, news, and special updates delivered to your inbox.


Everyplace Labs Validates Self-Service Diagnostic Testing Kiosk



Here are two things we learned as a society from the COVID-19 pandemic: one is that knowledge is power, and a quick diagnostic test can help us understand our risk of spreading a virus to others; the second is we also learned that testing technology means nothing if it’s not accessible. If you have to schedule an appointment to get tested three days after symptoms start and then you wait another three days for results, the whole system grinds to a halt. Accurate tests aren’t enough. We also have to get them into the right hands at the right time.

That’s where today’s guests come in. Michael Tu and Claire Zhou are the co-founders of Everyplace Labs, which StartUp Health backed in 2021. As the name suggests, Everyplace Labs is designing a way to make diagnostic testing – whether for COVID or anything else – available just about anywhere. They’ve built a kiosk – essentially a diagnostic testing vending machine that can walk a patient through the administration of a test, and then process the results right there in the machine. The product, really a first of its kind, is being piloted at large manufacturers, where workers can have a very hard time accessing healthcare resources, but it really has implications for any community lacking access to basic diagnostic testing.

In our conversation we’ll get into their recent pilot, learn how the machine works, and hear what comes next for broader commercialization.

Join us in Miami Beach from March 6-9 for StartUp Health @ ViVE 2022 to meet dozens of Health Transformers: startuphealth.com/vive

Connect with the team at Everyplace Labs.

Entrepreneurs: How to get investment from StartUp Health startuphealth.com

Investors: How to invest in StartUp Health Moonshots healthmoonshots.com
Want more content like this? You can subscribe to the podcast as well as other health innovation updates at startuphealth.com/content.
Sign up for StartUp Health Insider™ to get funding insights, news, and special updates delivered to your inbox.

 


At Particle Health, Troy Bannister Is Bringing the Best of FinTech to Healthcare



Meet Troy Bannister and the Particle Health team when you join us in Miami Beach in March for StartUp Health @ ViVE 2022: startuphealth.com/vive

It’s no secret that healthcare as an industry has lagged behind most industries when it comes to tech adoption. We can search and buy plane tickets on our phones, get a same-day delivery of toothpaste with a click of a button, but medical records often still need to be faxed in paper form from one hospital to another.

Your response might be that’s OK since healthcare is a lot more complicated, and data security is a bigger deal when it comes to health than it is in travel and retail. However, consider Exhibit B: Digital personal finance. Today, people deposit checks, send money, even invest in the stock market, with a click on their phones, in spite of the very sensitive nature of the data involved.

I say all of this because my guest on the show today, Troy Bannister, is bringing the best of finance tech and bringing it to the healthcare industry. Troy is the CEO and Co-founder of Particle Health, which StartUp Health backed in 2018, and he’s on a mission to kill the fax machine and make the essential exchange of health data as easy as Venmo, Mint, or RobinHood. Particle Health is doing this through a clever API approach that helps developers build new, exciting apps.

Join us in Miami Beach from March 6-9 for StartUp Health @ ViVE 2022 to meet the Particle Health team and dozens of other Health Transformers: startuphealth.com/vive

Learn more and connect with the team at Particle Health.

Entrepreneurs: How to get investment from StartUp Health startuphealth.com

Investors: How to invest in StartUp Health Moonshots healthmoonshots.com
Want more content like this? You can subscribe to the podcast as well as other health innovation updates at startuphealth.com/content.
Sign up for StartUp Health Insider™ to get funding insights, news, and special updates delivered to your inbox.