A2.0 Global Startup Search – Boston Chapter
Seven entrepreneurs pitched their business ideas on May 26, 2016 at the Aging 2.0 Boston Chapter’s event hosted at the STANLEY Healthcare Experience Center. What an impressive and relevant venue – the 6,500 square foot center offers a hands-on environment for you to evaluate, design and fine-tune their comprehensive portfolio of safety, security and operational efficiency solutions, products and services. In a post Healthcare Reform climate focused on quality of care we are reminded that top-level keywords like “innovation” and “user-centered design” are not new ideas or strategies – companies like STANLEY arguably have a sustainable competitive advantage because they have learned to both inform and be influenced by a complex ecosystem of users; over 5,000 hospital and healthcare system and over 12,000 senior living communities!
A Common Mission
If Aging 2.0 Local Chapters have a unifying mission; it is to help create a host learning environment for startups that aims to approximate the scale and depth of resources available to enterprise level organizations – so that we can collectively fast-track great ideas to the aging services market. Nearly 20 Corporate Sponsors – representing a broad cross-section of professionals active in the business of serving seniors – supported the local event’s goal of vetting the best aging-focused startup for advancement to Aging 2.0’s OPTIMIZE Conference. The winner from each of the (over thirty) local chapters across the world will compete toward gaining a global platform for their business concept in San Francisco next October.
[kleo_grid type=”2″ animation=”yes”][kleo_feature_item] This pitch event was emceed by Susan Wornick, a passionate family caregiver herself and a well-recognized former NewsCenter5 Anchor. Susan did a terrific job keeping the program personally relevant to the challenges confronting family caregivers – citing they only escalate with aging. Susan is the primary caregiver for her mom, now over 100 years old and living at home with her. “Nobody prepares you for this responsibility – where I thought it would be fun reliving the past when we were together at home and I was 18 years old again.”[/kleo_feature_item][kleo_feature_item]
#Boston TV newswoman Susan Warnick emcees the #globalstartupsearch @Aging2Boston pic.twitter.com/Q2kYn693jw
— Creating Results (@CreatingResults) May 26, 2016
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Summary of Participants
- Qweepi – A post-acute care coordination company focused on processing daily patient data inputted by staff to analyze acuity trends and report on patients at risk of adverse events.
- EchoCare – Develops a non-wearable, elderly-care, home monitoring system that automatically alerts safety and emergency situations as falls, stress, sleep apnea.
- WatchRX– Easy-to-use watch, that’s also a phone and GPS, to help seniors take meds on time, stay connected with family, and live independently in their home.
- Rendever – Offers a virtual reality platform to improve patient care and experience by reducing rates of depression, cognitive decline and related issues such as comorbidity.
- Ivy Solutions – Makes Visitry, an application enabling elders to request face to face visits from vetted volunteers and provides management tools to visitor program administrators.
- Pong Robotics – Robotic products to help the Baby Boomer generation maintain an independent lifestyle at home.
- Orbita – Orbita is the first modern, digital home care solution designed to engage and empower both patients and their caregivers dealing with age-related or chronic health issues at home.
Judging Criteria
New products and services driven by emerging technologies are dramatically changing the future of aging services! Innovative products are here to enrich lives and improve quality of care. An esteemed panel of five expert judges (Joseph Coughlin; Robert Danziger; Marty Guay; Steve Kraus & Robin Lipson) recognized three of the pitch presentations with cash prizes based upon the following criteria:
- Idea / Product – quality of overall concept, viability of product or service
- Team / Business Model – diversity and strength of team, sales record, funding, pipeline, strategic plan
- Impact on the Aging Experience – potential to improve quality of life for older adults, caregivers, and/or revolutionize the aging services industry.
The Winner – EchoCare Technologies
The ECHO system developed by Co-founders Rafi Zack and Dr. Yossi Kofman is a connected, machine-learning, Advanced-PERS (Personal Emergency Response System) that is focused specifically on fall detection. Falls are the main concern of family caregivers. According to the CDC, 2.5 million older people are treated in emergency departments for fall injuries each year. This particular solution is especially unique because it is based on an RF sensor that doesn’t compromise privacy. Additionally, it boasts the capability of extracting Position, Posture, Motion and Respiration; essential indicators to help detect and trigger alerts for various other emergency situations.
A Special Thanks to the Event Sponsors
Our thanks to the many corporate sponsors supporting this event as well as to the dedicated volunteers representing the Boston Chapter of Aging 2.0 who helped make this event an engaging success. We look forward to continuing activities of the Chapter to support and promote the pioneers of the future of aging originating from New England!
PREMIER SPONSORS
