This fall at MedStack, we attended a ton of events all over North America to tell our story and celebrate all things digital health. I personally had the pleasure of attending TechCrunch Disrupt SF, Health 2.0, MIT Wearables + Digital Health + NeuroTech, Interface Health Summit and Social Capital Markets. Other members of our team also attended Elevate Toronto, SecTor and the Connected Health Conference and will be heading to the Dreamit x BISNOW Innovation Summit as well as SaaS North.
So far, we’ve met hundreds of digital health companies tackling everything from anthropomorphic robots that combat loneliness in the elderly to an early childhood development screening application, and from blockchain-based personal health data marketplaces to implantable medical devices to monitor for post-surgical complications. We met telehealth companies, AI, mixed reality, blockchain, voice, and drone companies. OK fine…no drone companies, but probably everything else you can imagine!
By far the biggest trend in digital health entrepreneurship that we’ve seen this year is that brave startups are digging their teeth into one of the largest, most complex healthcare issues of our time — mental health. We met dozens of them! Fearless founders tackling tough problems, often motivated by personal health stories, hoping to make a real difference in the fight to improve mental health. This is personally really exciting for me. Most people have either struggled with mental health or knows someone very close to them who has, so we all know that even the smallest improvement in someone’s mental health goes a really long way. I’d like to highlight some of the amazing companies we met that are solving problems in this space.
Amazing Mental Health Startups
Mindful Garden
A mixed reality platform that interacts with patient voice and gesture to de-escalate anxiety and aggression in delirium/dementia within in the first 24 hours in hospital. Mindful Garden is a company based in Vancouver with an enthusiastic and genuine team that had an amazing presence at the AR/VR-focused Interface Health Summit.
TAO Connect
An ambitious team out of Florida that we met at TechCrunch Disrupt, TAO Connect is completely changing the game for on campus mental health and counseling services. Their platform provides students access to online and mobile educational modules and practice tools in a self-help setting or with short phone conversations or video conferences with a therapist.
Caera Therapy
Another energetic startup out of Vancouver with the perfect team to supplement standard clinic-based mental health care with mobile exercises and communication.
BabyNoggin
A mother founder motivated by her own personal experience has created a better way for parents and pediatricians to track a child’s developmental milestones. BabyNoggin takes advantage of reimbursable screening tools to improve health outcomes and provider income.
Ellipsis Health
A passionate and experienced team of healthcare and technology professionals has built an Artificial Intelligence to improve behavioural health through the analysis of natural conversation.
Supports Health
Of course, we can’t forget about the mental health of caregivers. Funded by the Ontario Brain Institute, Supports Health has a platform that gives a patient’s family the support they deserve, so that clinicians can focus on providing the best comprehensive care to the patient.
These companies are inspiring our team to continue breaking down the barriers to innovation and market growth in the healthcare industry. Allowing startups like these to focus on the important things – building technologies and driving real health outcomes for patients – is what matters to us as at MedStack. We can’t wait to see what’s in store for them.
