Are you a healthcare provider interested in using technology to improve the patient experience? Perhaps you’re an investor with eyes on the growing healthcare startup market? Or maybe you’re just a health-conscious person wanting new strategies to build immunity against Zika virus or the impending winter flu season? Whatever the reason, healthcare (and the business behind it) is hard not to have top of mind. The digital health sector alone is growing at lightning speed; according to Startup Health, a New York-based investor and accelerator program, 2016 is set to be the biggest year yet for digital health funding, with $6.1 billion already raised internationally and $3.3 billion invested in the US.
And while the West Coast continues to attract the most health startup activity here at home, Becker’s Hospital Review recently named Southern metros like Austin, Miami, and Atlanta to its top nine health startup hubs to know outside of Silicon Valley. It’s a tough industry to break into (ahem: HIPAA compliance, medical regulation…), but these 11 Southern companies aren’t sneezing at the chance to do something big.
- Raleigh-based Vital Plan is a B-Corp certified wellness company that offers high-quality natural supplements and health protocols to help people, particularly chronic disease patients, improve their lives. The company was co-founded in 2012 by female entrepreneur Braden Rawls and her father, Dr. Bill Rawls, a physician who wanted to increase awareness about supporting a healthy immune system following his experience with Lyme disease. In the past year, Vital Plan snagged investment from John Replogle of Seventh Generation and quadrupled its revenue.
- Based in Nashville, NextGxDx is a healthcare technology company on a mission to make genetic testing more transparent and efficient for hospitals, healthcare providers, genetic testing labs, and health plan providers. Products include GeneSource, an easy-to-use tool to search, compare, and order genetic tests securely. The company participated in Jumpstart Foundry, Nashville’s leading seed-stage healthcare innovation fund, and has raised nearly $4 million in two rounds since 2013.
- Keona Health is a Chapel Hill-based healthcare software company focused on streamlining the triage process. The startup helps physician practices and hospitals “put down the phone and see more patients” through an automated medical interview system that turns a 15 minute phone call into a 1 minute review. They raised $2.5 million in 2014.
- Headquartered in Miami, CareCloud is one of the nation’s leading providers of cloud-based health IT software and services. The company offers a suite of cloud-based electronic health record, practice management, and medical billing software and services combine to maximize practice profitability and improve patient care. Since founding in 2009, CareCloud has raised over $86 million in 7 rounds and has been featured in TechCrunch and VentureBeat.
- WellTrackONE is a Hilton Head, SC-based company that offers a full-service wellness solution, including scheduling, screening and documentation, enabling physicians to provide Annual Wellness Visits for Medicare patients more efficiently. Their service quickly provides the Medicare required Risk Factors Report, the 5-Year Plan Report, and the Personalized Prevention Plan to the physician. WELLTrackOne participated in Blueprint Health accelerator in NYC and raised $1.5 million in 2014.
- Arlington, VA-based HealthEngage is a survey and analytics platform for patients and healthcare providers. Patients can take daily surveys to help manage their health and healthcare organizations can create patient polls and surveys to gather real-time data and improve the patient experience. The company launched in 2013.
- Mytonomy is a Bethesda, MD-based patient education system. Their research-backed, HIPAA compliant microlearning patient education platform enables patients and families to understand their patient instructions, whenever and wherever they want. Doctors and hospitals can also create their own customized microlearning patient education content or rebrand pre-loaded, peer-reviewed content.
- Based in Kentucky, Personal Medicine Plus has developed an evidence-based behavior change software and analytics platform that predicts and prevents lifestyle disease in a provider-led outpatient implementation. The female-founded startup has participated in both the StartupHealth accelerator in NYC and the XLerate Health in Louisville since launching in 2013.
- Spartanburg, SC-based BioscanR is a personal health monitoring system designed to extend the reach of doctors to help chronic disease, home health, and other medically challenged patients who need continuous monitoring on a temporary basis. The company combines existing FDA approved wearable sensors with algorithms that monitor trends in vitals to guide the patient through monitoring their health. BioscanR launched in 2014 and is backed by Iron Yard Ventures.
- Located in Austin, Med2You is a female-founded, on-demand medical service that offers on-site and telehealth medical care directly to patients. The company interfaces with healthcare providers and organizations who are struggling to meet the healthcare needs of their clients or employees, and provides comprehensive care, tailored to the needs of each patient population.
- Based in Nashville, Clarus (formerly known as eClinic) has developed a HIPAA compliant OnCall application to help clinicians manage and respond to after-hours patient calls. Clarus takes inbound patient calls and transcribes them into a text with basic patient demographic information and an audio file of the patient’s message. Messages are securely delivered to the appropriate provider’s smart device or phone, at which point, the clinician can add notes and/or forward calls to other clinical or non-clinical staff in their network. Clarus participated in Nashville’s Healthbox Accelerator after launching in 2015.
Do you know of other health-related startups succeeding in the South? Let us know in the comments or hit us up on Twitter!
