Dell Seeking Start-Ups Innovating in Healthcare

RxWiki Selected as Finalist in Dell's Tech Innovation Day Series

(Source: Statesman) Dell Inc. partnered with Intel to host a contest seeking start-up businesses with the innovation to change the way healthcare is delivered.

On Thursday, April 10, Dell and Intel hosted the Tech Innovation Day Series: Healthcare Pitch Days to provide businesses the opportunity to present their technologies to a panel of the industries’ judges.

Dr. Andy Litt, chief medical officer at Dell Healthcare & Life Sciences, said Dell not only has an interest in promoting innovation and development for its commercial and corporate aspects, but for healthcare as well.

“Dell is looking for young entrepreneurs with great ideas who are looking to develop them in the information-technology world,” Litt said.

Litt said the purpose of the challenge was to bring competition to the healthcare world with the ability to engage consumers in the patient world.

The Healthcare Pitch Days included a three-step process for competing businesses. Businesses submitted basic information about themselves, their founders and what value each business could bring to Dell or Intel.

Amanda Engler, corporate communications consultant at Dell, said the series involved three pitch days, the first being held in Austin. The second leg was held on April 15 in San Francisco, and the third was on April 24 in New York City.

“The initial pitch events were closed-door events,” Engler said. “The pitch consisted of dialogue and feedback between the companies and the judges from Dell, Intel and third-party judges.”

The start-up businesses were judged on the businesses’ pitch details, market-based results and discussion about how they may potentially work with Dell and Intel. Each business received feedback on their products and technology including suggestions on advancing their products to the market.

“We were originally supposed to choose one business from each location,” Engler said, “but were so impressed by the innovation we decided to pick two from each site with one wildcard business selected online.”

The six companies competing at the Austin site were Health Innovators Systems, Symphony MD, Inc., Kinesio, RxWiki Digital Pharmacist, Filament Labs and Medical Information Records. RxWiki Digital Pharmacist and Medical Information Records will compete in the final presentation event with five other businesses in San Francisco on May 14.

The finalists were determined by David Altounian, partner at Capital Factory; Mark Blatt, worldwide medical director at Intel; John Dougherty, business development executive for Healthcare and Life Sciences; and Jason St. Peter, center for entrepreneurs business development at Dell.

Litt previewed the six companies, but judged the New York event. Engler was present at the Austin event.

“We had great companies present,” Engler said. “They all presented well and each had a unique niche to fill in the marketplace.”

One of the finalists, RxWiki Digital Pharmacist, is an Austin-based business seeking to centralize 23,000 independent pharmacies into a single online platform. It currently has 2,400 pharmacies in its system and is crowd-sourced by the University of Texas School of Pharmacy.

“A lot of people use CVS or Walgreens for online tools, but RxWiki Digital Pharmacist is looking to create a platform similar to that for independent pharmacies,” Engler said. “They presented good case studies and are filling in the needs not being met in the marketplace.”

The second finalist, Medical Information Records, is a Houston-based business in the process of moving to Austin. A group of anesthesiologists created AnesthesiaOS, an anesthesia information management system.

Engler said AnesthesiaOS allows anesthesiologists to have everything at their fingertips in advance. AnesthesiaOS displays any potential complications with anesthesia based on patient history.

“Having all that in one place can save lives,” Engler said. “With patient interaction, anesthesiologists can make sure they are integrating with other systems in the operating rooms.”

Litt said it is businesses such as these that show the amount of innovation and creativity going on in the healthcare field.

“Healthcare is a changing market. There are rapid shifts and opportunities,” Litt said. “The evolution of healthcare is constant and becoming more digitized. It is those types of changes that are changing how we think about managing healthcare.”

The final presentation will focus more on why Dell and Intel should partner with the businesses and how they can contribute to the start-ups. Each business will have approximately 10 minutes to showcase their platforms.

The winner will receive the latest Dell tablets, coaching and mentorship from Dell and Intel, the opportunity to propose proof of contract, and the possibility of working with a Dell customer to take the product into the market.

“Often it is hard if you’re an innovator, but you don’t have a group to bounce the product off of,” Litt said. “The feedback is the number one thing each business will gain.”