When “Shark Tank” and health tech meet, innovation thrives

Have you seen the show “Shark Tank”? I had the chance to act as a “shark” this week for an innovative challenge where entrepreneurs took to the stage to pitch their best health tech ideas.

I have the privilege of representing the AMA as the secretary of the eHealth Initiative (eHi), a non-profit multi-stakeholder organization committed to improving health and healthcare through information technology. The group just held its iTHRIVE Challenge, receiving 60 “pitches” from entrepreneurs. The pitches were viewed online 15,000 times and 1,000 people voted on the pitches to select 12 finalists who presented them in Washington, D.C. 

Along with senior leaders from organizations such as Mayo Clinic, PriceWaterhouseCooper, United Healthcare, Accenture, Marshfield Clinic and Cerner Corporation, I had the novel experience to judge these proposals. As I journey now to my next destination, I’m still admiring the creativity of these entrepreneurs and thought I’d share some.

If you have ever used Snapchat, you’ll be familiar with how EASE works. The mobile app enables operating room teams to send photos and text updates to family members of patients undergoing operative procedures. The information auto-deletes after 45 seconds. This communication relieves family anxiety and simplifies after-surgery discussions with family.

EASE is already used in a number of prominent hospitals and ready for more. One of their founders is an AMA member and this is how they describe themselves: “EASE was created by doctors inside of an operating room.  We are not a tech company trying to make our way into an OR.  Our team consists of a business executive, two anesthesiologists and a cardiac surgeon.”  

The creator describes this as a “high-touch, low-tech” way to care for our aging loved ones. Using a mobile platform, families will schedule automated phone calls to isolated elderly family members. The calls can include a recorded message from family members and will ask questions to ascertain the wellness of the loved one. The loved one answers verbally (that’s the low-tech part). Care Angel collects the answers and makes them available to family members via the mobile platform.

If the answers raise concern or there is no answer to repeated calls, the platform (the high-tech part) immediately notifies family members. There’s a lot more detail than I can cover here, but this looks to be a neat idea with much potential.

Here is an example of the needle worth finding in an overwhelming haystack of useless data. Reliably tracking daily weight is an elegantly simple way to monitor fluid status for congestive heart failure and renal failure patients to identify patients at risk for distress and preventable hospitalization. Meerkat uses an ultra-thin wi-fi scale under a bathmat, measures and transmits daily weights, uses algorithms to identify patients with worrisome weight gain and alerts clinicians to intervene before decompensation occurs. The innovation here is creating a reliable end-to-end process that is effortless for the patient, inexpensive and easily actionable by clinicians.      

Okay, this wasn’t presented at the iTHRIVE challenge and is an add-on, but I want to call attention to STEPS Forward. It’s just one of the AMA’s many new innovation initiatives directly tailored to improving the satisfaction of physicians and the sustainability of their practices.

This is a web-based platform of clinical practice solutions designed by physicians, for physicians. I strongly encourage physicians in small and mid-size practices to explore the modules to see if they can help you work smarter, not harder.  And I invite anyone with their own innovative solutions to clinical challenges to submit your own ideas to win a $10,000 prize and help us create the next round of solutions for STEPS Forward.

As a practicing emergency physician married to an allergist who works in a two-physician office, I know our profession faces many challenges. Amidst these challenges, though, there is an exciting world of innovation in which we have more tools than ever to help our patients lead healthier, happier lives.

I want to be a part of that bright future. I want to make it even brighter. And I look forward to joining many of you in the creation of it.

Thank you for all you do, every day, for our patients and our profession.