On Monday night, health entrepreneurs, investors and industry insiders celebrated a new class of “healthcare transformers” as well as the industry’s complete and official arrival in the digital world of SXSW.
StartUp Health and Health 2.0 hosted a happy hour at The Hangar Bar in Austin and introduced two entrepreneurs who will be participating in the three-year program designed to help the companies build a sustainable growth business in the health sector. Nadeem Kassam of Basis and Hesky Kutscher of MotherKnows.com were at the event.
“I’ve been following Steve (Krein, StartUp Health cofounder) for years and it is so exciting to be able to benefit from his networks and his experiences,” Kassam said.
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Basis is developing a heart monitor that is worn like a watch. It measures heart rate as well as activity and temperature. Users can win points and praise for increased activity.
“Somewhere between health care and entertainment lies ideal wellness,” Kassam said.
Kutscher is also focusing on consumer health with an EHR designed for parents.
“It’s not easy to keep track of health records for kids,” he said, “And there is this basic desire to know, ‘What is that doctor writing about my kid?'”
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Startup Health’s other co-founder Unity Stoakes said that he is thrilled with the new class.
“These are dreamers who make things happen,” he said.
At the event, Krein reminded the crowd that only last year health sessions were held one day at SXSW. This year there was a full blown track that ran during the entire interactive festival.
Stoakes said that lots more developers were interested in the space than previous years.
Announced Monday, the 10 winners were picked from almost 400 applications. AT&T and the California HealthCare Foundation will provide full-tuition scholarships for the first group accepted into the program.
In addition to Kassam and Kutscher, entrepreneurs in the class include:
- Sundeep Bhan of Medivo
- Veer Gidwaney of DailyFeats
- Samer Hamadeh of Zeel Networks
- Bill Scott of BrainPaint
- Bronwyn Spira of FORCE Therapeutics
- Dr. David Wong of Direct Dermatology
- Faheem Zaman a Thiel Fellow working on a yet-to-launch mobile health company
- Dr. George Zamanakos an entrepreneur working on a telemedicine program for pregnant women
