Rock Health Launches –The First Seed Accelerator to Promote Interactive Health

A new startup seed-accelerator, Rock Health, wants to give you $20,000, no strings attached, along with mentorship and office space for five months, in order to turn your health-related startup or idea into a reality. Supported by some serious names (see below),  Rock Health aims to catalyze software-based innovation in the health sector. They’re structured as a non-profit, and are opening doors to their first startup class this June.

SAN FRANCISCO, April 4, 2011 – Rock Health, a seed accelerator for interactive health, announces its new incubator program linking developers and entrepreneurs with the most innovative minds in health and technology.

Rock Health’s sponsors include Aberdare Ventures, Accel Partners, the California HealthCare Foundation, Fenwick & West, Microsoft, Mohr Davidow Ventures, NEA, Nike and Qualcomm. Rock Health also has an expansive network of medical advisors, led by the Mayo Clinic Center for Innovation and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.

The first five-month incubator program will commence in June 2011 in San Francisco, and aims to catalyze health app innovation, turning ideas into products and businesses. “We’re creating an environment where entrepreneurs and developers from other sectors can approach problems in health care in new, product-centric ways,” says Rock Health’s managing director, Halle Tecco.
Selected startups receive a $20,000 grant in addition to free office space, mentorship, and access to Rock Health’s medical experts and partners.

“Health care is the most important challenge facing our nation, yet patient care and healthy living do not yet exhibit the technological creativity found in social media, games and other verticals,” adds Rock Health’s medical director, Nate Gross. “Physicians are excited to work with our developers because they recognize that product design should not be an afterthought.”

Rock Health is building a diverse advisor and mentor community with experts from design, data science, gaming and health care IT. Rock Health’s advisory board includes Frank Moss, head of the New Media Medicine group at the MIT Media Lab, and Michael Abbott, VP of Engineering at Twitter. Startup mentors include Charles Huang, co-founder of GuitarHero, and Linda Avey, co-founder of 23andMe. A full list of advisors and mentors can be found at http://rockhealth.com/.

Applications to join Rock Health are open until May 13.

About Rock Health
Rock Health is a seed accelerator that challenges developers and entrepreneurs to address issues in health and wellness through consumer web and mobile technologies. Founded in 2011, it provides early stage funding and strategic support as well as mentorship and office space to new companies. The incubator is backed by Aberdare Ventures, Accel Partners, the California HealthCare Foundation, Fenwick & West, Microsoft HealthVault, Mohr Davidow Ventures, NEA, Nike, and Qualcomm and is in
partnership with the Mayo Clinic and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. For more information, or to apply, visit RockHealth.com.

April 24, 2011 I Written By

HealthTap Launches First Interactive Expert Health Companion — Free to All

There are numerous apps out there to help you monitor your help but here is a brand new one that is also free.  It currently only supports pregnancy and the first year of life but will be expanding into all fields in the near future.  The full release can be seen here, but here are the major features that it will offer:

How HealthTap Works

Consumers on HealthTap can:

* Create a Home for Health with personalized health feeds, a dynamic customizable checklist, and secure storage of health information.
* Get succinct answers and tips from doctors, data from an extensive proprietary medical Knowledge-Base, and validated insight from community members similar to them.
* Find trusted doctors locally and nationally by exploring their insight, expertise and care.
Print a personalized Doctor Visit Prep-Sheet to make the visit smoother and more productive for both doctor and patient.

U.S. licensed physicians admitted to HealthTap’s Medical Expert Network can:

* Grow their practices and improve the quality of care that they provide patients, while reducing costs through HealthTap’s one-of-a-kind digital platform.
* Automatically amplify their knowledge and broaden their reach in social media.
* Create their own Online Medical Home where they can easily store and share their medical wisdom, extending relationships with patients beyond office hours.

“HealthTap is revolutionizing the way people and physicians find, share, and use health information, both on- and offline,” said Dr. Alan Greene, HealthTap medical director and clinical professor of pediatrics at Stanford’s Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital. “HealthTap puts us all — physicians and users — on the same page, delivering an integrated health experience that gives patients succinct, actionable medical information from trusted doctors — anytime, anywhere. Simultaneously, it empowers physicians to effortlessly extend their wisdom and improve the quality of patient care beyond their office hours.”

To join HealthTap’s free public beta, visit www.healthtap.com.

About HealthTap
HealthTap, your Home for Health, is an Expert Health Companion that tailors information to each of its unique users based on their individual health characteristics. HealthTap’s free, interactive Expert Health Companion combines expert input from physicians, together with community insight, and data from its proprietary medical Knowledge-Base to help users make better decisions about their health and well-being. The HealthTap team includes highly experienced and accomplished members who have built health and mobile applications that have served hundreds of millions of people. Based in Palo Alto, HealthTap is backed by Mohr Davidow Ventures and prominent Silicon Valley angel investors, including Esther Dyson, Mark Leslie, and Aaron Patzer. For more information, visit www.healthtap.com.

 

April 22, 2011 I Written By