Rock Health goes to Washington
The 3rd annual mHealth Summit held outside Washington DC was the biggest yet with 3,600 leaders in mHealth from around the world. The organizer, NIH, brought together big and small players working on mHealth solutions. The conference was filled with inspirational talks, forecasts on new uses of mHealth, big announcements and demos from new startups.
Highlights:
Kathleen Sebelius, U.S. Department of HSS: “Over the last few decades, we’ve seen information technology improve the consumer experience in almost every area of our lives. We’ve gone from waiting until a bank opened to make a deposit to 24-hour ATMs and paying bills online,” and “But health care has stubbornly held onto its cabinets and hanging files.” She pushed the audience towards creating products with meaningful uses that would have a greater effect on the entire population.
Julius Genachowski, Chairman of FCC: “Wired and wireless connectivity makes the mHealth advances possible.” Mr. Julius Genachowski ensured that the FCC is working on the goals of putting seven million more rural Americans will be connected to broadband and increasing the wireless capacity.
Susannah Fox, Pew Internet & American Life Project: Fox forecasted where the mHealth industry will change. She believes we are at the early adopter stage through social media, engagement in e-patient networks, health apps. She is waiting see what will catalyze larger engagement and is looking toward monitors or clinical encouragement as possibilities.
Top Announcements:
- Regina M. Benjamin, Surgeon General of the United States, announced a challenge to app developers. Find out more here
- Qualcomm Life: Product launch of 2Net & 100 Million Fund for mHealth app developers
- Top 11 in 2011 Innovators Challenge Winners
- HealthTap raises 11 Million
Startups
We were excited by large presence of mHealth startups and the investing community supporting them. The startup pavilion exhibited 37 up-and-coming companies, some of our favorites are listed below. We were proud to have 4 Rock Health teams invited to show, including Skimble.
Some of our favorites:
Beyond Lucid Technologies
CellScope
Health Tap
iPatient
NudgeRx
Orca Health
ScriptPad
Skimble
The Best Party at mHealth Summit
And course there was a healthy consumption of libations at our Monday night party to celebrate Qualcomm Life’s announcement. As the pianos dueled, over 500 guests sang along and struck a pose in a photo-booth at Bobby McKeys.
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