Amazon Web Services tapped 10 startups as finalists to participate in its 2022 healthcare accelerator focused on health equity, it announced Wednesday.
The cohort of 10 startups, selected from more than 250 applicants, pitched solutions aimed at improving access to care and addressing social determinants of health, the company said. Those social drivers range from expanding access to medical transport to helping unhoused patients reach housing and health goals.
The program will run for four weeks and will offer technical and business mentoring, up to $25,000 in AWS computing credits and opportunities to collaborate with existing AWS clients, industry leaders and members of the AWS Partner Network.
“We cast a very broad net,” Jeff Kratz, AWS general manager for worldwide public sector partners, programs and sales, said in an interview. “Health equity is such a needed area for practical solutions,” Kratz said. The panel making the selections looked for unique solutions that have a market and considered startups’ culture and diversity, Kratz said. Learn more about this year’s cohort here.
The 10 startups are:
1. Clinify Health
2. ClosedLoop.ai
3. CognitiveCare
4. Harmony Health
5. Kinetik
6. Pair Team
7. Samaritan
8. SameSky Health
9. Vincere Health
10. Zócalo Health
COVID-19 “accelerated many of the challenges of inequality in health,” Kratz said. It also accelerated how many web-enabled startups have cropped up to fill in gaps in care. This newer approach is preferred by many companies for its possibilities around security, reduction of costs in healthcare and accessibility, Kratz added.
“We’re providing the tools and the access to the smallest startups to the largest healthcare institutions to hospitals and clinics and more, which is revolutionizing the healthcare market,” Kratz said of AWS. This accelerator is one way it hopes to boost ongoing innovation efforts.
The program will kick off with an assessment of each startup based on its individual goals and how AWS can help achieve them, Kratz said. Then, the program will pull on experts to provide advice and training related to scaling, going to market and fundraising. Finally, startups will design their next steps, such as proofs of concept or pitches.
Participants will get to experiment with AWS technologies and work with the likes of the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Mass General Brigham, Philips and GE Healthcare. The program will conclude in the first-ever demo day at the AWS Healthcare Accelerator Pavilion at HLTH 2022 in November.
The programs are a way for AWS to use the cloud to improve the healthcare system, the company says. The first U.S.-based AWS healthcare accelerator concluded in October 2021. Past cohort members reached a variety of goals through the program, Kratz said, including one participant landing a deal with Walmart Health and another being featured in Time. AWS separately has the Health Equity Initiative—a $40 million commitment meant to help advance health equity globally.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.