New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) today announced the winners of Innovate Health Tech NYC, a competition designed to promote innovation within New York City's health technology sector. Innovate Health Tech NYC, an initiative of NYCEDC sponsored by Janssen Healthcare Innovation (JHI), recognizes early-stage health technology companies and entrepreneurs tackling pressing issues affecting human health. On Wednesday, July 10th, ten finalists met at WeWork Lounge in NYC to pitch their pre-commercial, prototype stage technologies to a panel of expert judges and 150 members of the healthcare and tech communities. Three of these companies received Third, Second and Grand Prizes worth $50,000 in total.
The winning companies were:
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Grand Prize ($25,000): Kinsa works at the intersection of technology, design, and healthcare to create the world's first real-time map of human health. The company's first product is a smartphone-connected thermometer. The Kinsa Smart Thermometer helps users track their illness history, share that with physicians, manage and plan around their illness, and view the "health weather" in their local area.
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2nd Place ($15,000): Oculogica has discovered the Rosetta Stone to decipher what the brain is saying through the language of eye movements. This discovery has led the company to develop a low-cost, software-based diagnostic that will provide a safe, non-invasive and mobile test to diagnose the extent of concussion and a broad spectrum of other diseases' states. Oculogica's test will significantly improve patient care by providing better information than the current standard of care, which is more costly and invasive.
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3rd Place ($10,000): AdhereTech has created patented wireless pill bottles that improve medication adherence. Many patients fail to take their medication properly, increasing U.S. healthcare costs by $300 billion annually. AdhereTech's bottles measure the exact number of pills in the bottle in real-time, wirelessly send this HIPAA-compliant data into the cloud, and remind patients to take their medication via automated phone call or text message.
"Health 2.0 is thrilled with the success of both the Innovate Health Tech NYC competition and the Demo Day!" said Jean-Luc Neptune, SVP at Health 2.0, NYCEDC's administrative partner. "We look forward to continuing to support the New York City health tech community with further collaborations with NYCEDC, Janssen Healthcare Innovation, and fellow partners StartUp Health and ChallengePost."
Innovate Health Tech NYC was developed out of Eds & Meds NYC 2020, a strategic review of the life sciences and healthcare sectors in NYC. NYCEDC held extensive conversations with senior academic stakeholders, investors and entrepreneurs in NYC and beyond.
New York City is home to an increasingly robust healthcare sector, which includes world-class academic medical centers, top pharmaceutical companies, as well as numerous physician practices, nursing associations and clinics. Most recently, NYCEDC announced a partnership that will lead to the creation of Harlem Biospace, a life sciences incubator that will provide affordable wet-lab and microbench facilities, specialized laboratory equipment, mentorship and business support to early-stage life sciences companies. Harlem Biospace is designed to help create a thriving biotech community for turning revolutionary ideas into products that will solve important health problems.
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