Ten Most Promising Israeli Digital Health Startups of 2015 File for IPO
After the 2014 arms race, what trends will emerge for internet healthcare startups in 2015? Drawing on reports from Bloomberg Businessweek, The Times of Israel, Business Insider, and NoCamels, VCBeat presents the 10 most noteworthy Israeli internet healthcare companies to watch in 2015. What inspiration can Chinese enterprises draw from these innovative practices originating in the “Startup Nation”?
1 Treato——The Google of the Healthcare Industry
How to Identify Trends and Pinpoint Key Insights Amidst the Vast Amount of Information on the Internet? Treato, a medical big data company, automatically collects, indexes, and analyzes information posted by patients and physicians across major websites. It extracts key insights, traces the context and underlying factors, and leverages data mining to present a macro-level overview: What are patients and doctors actually saying about diseases and treatments? What are their treatment experiences and current conditions? Currently, Treato hosts the world’s largest repository of such information. In addition to patient users, nine of the top 50 pharmaceutical companies worldwide are also using Treato’s system.
2 MobileOCT——Detecting Cancer with a Mobile Phone
Does using a smartphone to detect cancer sound like science fiction? Israeli company MobileOCT has made it a reality. By integrating a smartphone, a lens, and algorithms, MobileOCT’s inaugural product enables effective detection of early-stage cervical cancer simply by attaching an endoscope to the phone. It is currently in use in Kenya, Haiti, Mexico, the United States, and other regions. MobileOCT has established collaborations with multiple leading global healthcare institutions.
3 Tyto Care——A health check-up anytime, anywhere
Want to easily undergo a medical checkup at home? The Israeli startup Tyto Care makes it possible. Using the company’s handheld device, ordinary users can perform accurate self-examinations anytime and anywhere (Tyto also supports remote examinations conducted by physicians). Currently, Tyto Care can examine organs and areas including the mouth, throat, ears, heart, lungs, and skin.
4 Talkitt—Empowering Patients to Reclaim Their Voice
Every year, speech difficulties caused by illness affect millions of people’s ability to express themselves. The startup Talkitt helps them regain their voice by converting hard-to-understand pronunciations into recognizable speech. The Talkitt app identifies users’ speech patterns and, based on this, transforms slurred or unclear speech into clear language. It is widely used among individuals with speech impairments resulting from stroke, brain injury, autism, Parkinson’s disease, and other conditions. Talkitt supports any language and has received multiple innovation awards.
5 Haldor—The Leading Surgical Tool Tracking and Management System
How to Enhance Surgical Safety and Prevent Medical Accidents? Haldor Corporation helps achieve cost control and lean management in healthcare systems through its ORLocate Surgical Instrument Tracking and Management System. As the world’s first surgical instrument tracking and management system leveraging RFID technology across the preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative phases, ORLocate can be customized to meet the specific needs of healthcare institutions. It offers extensive applications in reducing costs, improving patient safety, and advancing lean management practices.
6 Medivizor—Providing Personalized Medical Information and Services for Users
Amid the vast sea of medical information available online, patients often feel overwhelmed and struggle to distinguish fact from fiction. Medivizor is the first website to provide truly personalized information and services for patients with chronic and serious diseases, winning first place in an internet healthcare startup competition hosted by OurCrowd, a well-known venture capital firm in Israel. Through its unique algorithms, Medivizor helps each patient access accurate, timely, reliable, and most relevant medical and disease-related information.
7 MediSafe—Mobile Medication Management Software Makes Patients Healthier
Research has found that only half of patients adhere to their prescribed medication regimens, yet adherence is critical to patient recovery. Is there an effective way to ensure patients take their medications on time? MediSafe leverages its pioneering mobile medication management software to engage family members, friends, and healthcare institutions in supporting patients’ health. By monitoring patient behavior, MediSafe identifies barriers to timely and correct medication intake and tailors personalized medication plans for each patient. Notably, MediSafe’s solution is also compatible with non-smartphone devices.
8 Heramed——An Innovative Pregnancy Monitoring Platform
A plethora of internet-based medical products for pregnancy have emerged, with Heramed standing out as a prime example of such startups in Israel. Heramed has made prenatal monitoring incredibly simple. Its product, Compass, is the first medical-grade home fetal health monitoring device, enabling expectant mothers to safely and accurately monitor their fetus’s health via smartphones. Compass integrates multiple sensors to provide real-time fetal heart rate monitoring and can be linked with electronic health records (EHRs) to achieve integrated internet-based healthcare management.
9 uMoove——Cameras “See Through” Your Brain
Have you ever considered that while you stare at your smartphone every day, it is also watching you? The eyes are the window to the soul. uMoove’s eye and facial tracking technology enables mobile devices to record eye movement patterns, helping to capture early signs of conditions such as stroke, autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Parkinson’s disease, and glaucoma. uMoove’s algorithms rely on cameras but require very low camera precision, thereby opening up broad prospects for widespread application.
10 HelpAround——A Mutual Aid Social Platform for Diabetes Patients
Diabetes is a condition that requires constant attention, yet emergencies can still arise unexpectedly. HelpAround aims to engage as many people as possible in diabetes care by enabling patients to share resources and locate nearby blood glucose meters or insulin. In urgent situations, such as when a patient suddenly experiences diabetic coma, pressing the emergency alert button notifies nearby nurses or laypersons knowledgeable about diabetes. Recently, HelpAround has also begun extending its services to individuals with food allergies.
Event Preview: From March 22 to 28, 2015, the Internet Healthcare Israel Tour, organized by VCBeat, will facilitate in-depth dialogues with the CEOs of more than 20 of Israel’s most innovative internet healthcare companies. Representatives from internet giants such as Alibaba and Qihoo 360, alongside healthcare enterprises, will jointly explore investment and collaboration opportunities in the “Startup Nation.”
Click for event details.Here。
(This article is republished by VCBeat with authorization from Intu.)