Last night the Challenge Cup health startup semi-final competition was held as part of the week-long Challenge Cup Festival hosted by 1776. Sixteen health startups from around the globe, plus a few wildcard entrants, traveled to Washington, D.C. to compete for a spot in the finals (taking place on Saturday) and a grand prize of $150,000.
The ideas these startups presented ranged from improving inpatient care through better communication, to fertility resources, to portable head trauma screening. At the end of the presentations, the judges deliberated for almost a half-hour, but eventually chose two winners to move on to the final round.
Domestic Finalist: CancerIQ
CancerIQ helps health providers manage patient care and personal treatment plans using advanced data analytics and cancer genomics. The platform provides a suite of applications to help accelerate and streamline the increasingly complex decisions in oncology to help provide the best results for cancer patients. The big data platform used by CancerIQ today was developed in 2006 at the University of Chicago. It was optimized specifically for cancer, and supports the integration of clinical genomics and outcomes data. Researchers and oncologists are able to quickly develop insights that would have otherwise been trapped in various IT systems and data warehouses, and are thus armed with the best knowledge to provide optimal care.
International Finalist: MediSafe
Medisafe won the Tel Aviv Challenge Cup in February. They are the first cloud-synced mobile medication management system. With millions of people taking billions of doses of medicine a year, mistakes happen more often than necessary. In 2008 more than 700,000 people were hospitalized in the US for either skipping or taking the incorrect dosage. MediSafe’s technology makes it easy for people to schedule their medications, and will even alert friends and family members if their loved one forgets. Along with helping patients remember their medication, MediSafe also aims to reduce healthcare costs by improving patient adherence to treatment and long-term care.
Medisafe also won the Tech Cocktail’s Readers’ Choice for the hottest health startup.
Tonight, 16 more startups will compete in the Challenge Cup Smart Cities Semifinals, during which two more startups will join the education, energy and health winners in Saturday’s Challenge Cup: Global Finals for a chance at $150,000.
The Challenge Cup is produced by 1776 in partnership with Tech Cocktail and iStrategyLabs.
