Health Tech Hatch – A New Way to Fund Innovation in Health Care

Health Tech Hatch (HTH), my new health care crowdfunding site officially launches on 10/8/2012.  Please join us is celebrating our Hatch Day!

Health Tech Hatch (HTH), my new health care crowdfunding site officially launches on 10/8/2012.  Please join us is celebrating our Hatch Day!

Hatch is an online, mobile resource dedicated to launching early-stage innovations in health care and putting them into the hands of patients, physicians, wellness professionals and consumers. Our model creates a synergy among a crowdfunding model–a groundbreaking method of raising start-up funds for a new business or product, concept and prototype beta testing, professional feedback and expert mentorship. What we’re creating is an entrepreneurial ecosystem in the health care space.

By combining years of leadership in health care with business acumen, a passion for innovation in the industry, the power of social media and a robust set of interactive tools, we hatched our company—in the same way we intend to help other innovators hatch their ideas, products and services.  Our team is made up of professionals in medicine, technology, disease management, health insurance, health care finance and patient engagement.  We know health care inside out and want to apply our knowledge and experience to helping entrepreneurs and innovators hatch great companies and products.

We are already successfully introducing funders to groundbreaking businesses and products exclusively in the health care industry. It’s all about collaboration, pooling resources to support someone else’s efforts.

Funding is well underway for the health care innovators and entrepreneurs who participated in our beta.  We call them our Early Hatchers.  Here are some of them:

Let Patients Be Heard: Grants Can Make it Happen

Regina Holliday, Partnership with Patients

The Society for Participatory Medicine has made a successful run for its money for the Patient Travel Scholarship Fund, cosponsored by Partnership with Patients. Well before its late September deadline, the society exceeded its goal of $5,000, receiving $6,085, or 121.7% of the requested amount. The Society for Participatory Medicine is a 501(c)3 public charity devoted to promoting the concept of participatory medicine by and among patients, their caregivers and medical teams.

Covering transportation and lodging, the funds enabled (number) patients to attend the first-ever Partnership with Patients Summit in Kansas City, Mo., Sept. 21-23. Hatched by Regina Holliday, a strong advocate of patient empowerment, the travel grants provided an opportunity for patients to voice their concerns about health care, share potential ideas for solving the U.S. health care system’s problems, to network and learn about health care policy.

“For many years patients and activists have struggled to fund needed initiatives, and now crowdfunding sites such as Health Tech Hatch have changed the rules of the game.  One person alone can make an impact on the world, funded through a site supported by friends.  Thank you Health Tech Hatch! Your responsiveness is matched by your kindness.”  Regina Holliday, artist, speaker and social media blogger

Your Virtual Advocate: Pathfinders Video Library

Linda Adler, Founder and CEO of Pathfinders Medical

By using simple technology solutions, Pathfinders Medical is funding “an advocate in your pocket” – three-minute videos assisting patients in solving problems associated with a medical challenge, including diagnosis, treatment, recovery and palliative care. The video library will offer immediate access to information and support by patients and their loved ones.
Pathfinders Medical is on its way to reaching its $14,600 goal by Oct. 31, 2012, to secure an expert videographer and a mobile applications developer. The Virtual Library is just one of many services provided by Pathfinders, including decision support, medical visit preparation, medical bill management, grief therapy and hospital-based advocacy.

“Hooray for Health Tech Hatch! Finally a site that not only helps organizations like ours raise much needed funds, but also promotes the whole field of emerging technologies that lead to better healthcare for all. And backed up with a skilled and responsive team to ensure that the job gets done right. Thank you HTH!”  Linda Adler, Founder and CEO of Pathfinders Medical

Matching People to Health Care Jobs

Carladenise Edwards, Principal, The BAE Group

The Healthcare Quality Consortium (HQC), a newly founded social enterprise, will address the need for more health care workers and increase job opportunities for the growing number of unemployed people from underserved communities. The group set a goal of $8,100 by Oct. 31, 2012, to cover travel and meeting costs for an all-day planning retreat in the San Francisco Bay Area.

HQC will match people in need of a job with jobs in need of people by recruiting, training and retaining the hardest hit by our economy – primarily those who use the safety net as their primary care home.

The goal is to enable these candidates to serve on the “Invisible Healthcare Workforce,” behind-the-scenes jobs that are the backbone of the health care system – receptionists, phlebotomists, housekeepers, accountants, nurses’ aides and medical technicians.

Not only will HQC provide job training and employment opportunities, but it also will help community health clinics/safety net providers access a skilled workforce to improve health care quality and access.

“Our new social enterprise seeks to help underserved communities in two ways: training unemployed individuals to serve their community and providing safety net providers with a pipeline of qualified and enthusiastic staff, who are prepared to fill indispensable jobs in health care. Thanks to HTH, the Healthcare Quality Consortium is moving closer to our goal of creating a national initiative addressing the workforce needs of community health and safety net providers.”  Carladenise A. Edwards, Ph.D., President and CEO, The BAE Company, LLC

Anytime, Anywhere Board Prep

Higher Learning Technologies is revolutionizing study preparation for the health professional Board Exam by harnessing the power of new technologies. Out with paper books and flashcards and in with smartphones, tablets and home computers that make studying more effective and much more fun.

To make this happen, Higher Learning Technologies seeks $32,400 by Dec. 6, 2012, to build an interactive website in time for March 2013, the board prep study season. The company has already acquired content for National Board Dental Examination (BDE) Part I and is in the process of organizing nursing, dental hygiene and pharmacy curricula.
Customized “textbooks” are based on users’ goals and learning styles – whether a health professional graduate student demands a high score or just a passing grade and whether they learn more effectively by reading or listening.

The program lends itself to studying anywhere and with anyone wherever they are, using activities, games and competitions to stimulate learning. Professors and students in various health care disciplines create content for the study programs.

“I have loved working with Health Tech Hatch. It has helped me start to turn our dream into reality. HTH offers a powerful foundation on which to build a successful crowdfunding campaign. The site is easy to navigate. Its entire team went out of its way to ensure our campaign was completed without a hitch.”  Alec Whitters, CEO, Higher Learning Technologies

Why Only Employers Can Save Health Care

Dan Munro, Founder and CEO of iPatient

Two seasoned health care industry veterans are out to save the health care industry with a new eBook designed for the business executives that buy health care benefits.

Co-writers Dan Munro, contributing editor with Forbes where he writes on the intersection of health care IT, innovation and policy, and Brian Klepper, a health care columnist at Medscape, believe that health care is pulling the U.S economy over a cliff and the saviors are business leaders purchasing health insurance – not the Medical Industrial Complex, career politicians or unempowered consumers.

The authors’ intent is pragmatic. “We want to show the mechanisms that keep health care cost skyrocketing so we can all understand the road ahead more clearly. We want business leaders to see how we can retake our health care system before the runaway train goes over the cliff,” they say.

They are requesting $10,000 to cover publishing, editing, guerilla marketing and promotional costs.

“Crowdfunding is no longer experimental – it works. Great to see it focus on health care. There are lots of passionate people in the health care space; this finally gives them an easy way to convert that passion into meaningful support.”  Dan Munro, Health care journalist and Contributing Editor, Forbes

If you are in the San Francisco Bay Area, Join Us at The Healthcare Revolution October 8, 7:30-MN at Ruby Skye (420 Mason)-Health 2.0 After Party, Pitch Event, &Tweetup

We are very fortunate that our friends over at Medstartr, the first health care crowdfunder out of the gate, has  generously shared their long-planned event with us.  Even though we are competitors, we believe that it is important to collaborate to bring this terrific opportunity for entrepreneurs, funders, end-users, and other people interested in improving health care to come together, have some fun, and fund some innovations.  Thanks, Alex Fair and his Medstartr Team, and Gregg Masters, of XanateMedia for reaching out to us and letting us share in The Healthcare Revolution. And thanks to Sponsors, Verizon Wireless, Aetna, and GE Healthy Imagination.