Optum Labs creates and funds digital health research hub at Cornell Tech NYC

December 6, 2022 | by

Optum Labs, the research and development arm of Optum/UnitedHealth Care, is allying with Cornell University to create a collaborative health research hub at the university’s NYC-Roosevelt Island campus, Cornell Tech. The initiative, funded by Optum Labs, is targeted to develop precision behavioral health and advance equity. According to the release, it will drive innovative research in precision behavioral health, extended reality for aging in place, and equitable human and algorithmic decision-making. A large part of this is incorporating new types of health data from wearables and IoT devices, Also this joint venture will seek to create new types of remote intervention and care delivery using augmented reality and virtual reality actuation technologies with computational techniques. (Whew!)

The digital health hub will be led by Deborah Estrin, an Associate Dean and a Robert V. Tishman ’37 Professor at Cornell University, and Tanzeem Choudhury, Ph.D., Senior Vice President at Optum Labs, and a Roger and Joelle Burnell Professor in Integrated Health and Technology at Cornell University. The funding amount is not disclosed. To this Editor, this seems like an effort to restore the New York area as a digital health hub and regain momentum lost since 2020. Cornell release, 

Optum has been reaching out on multiple fronts. The RVO Health joint venture brought over media and Healthgrades doctor ratings [TTA 14 July], UHG inking a 10-year deal with Walmart Health starting with Florida locations, and of course the Change Healthcare wrap into OptumInsight [TTA 20 Sept, 4 Oct] though still being contested by DOJ post-closing. All a part of Keeping Up With the CVS Health/Aetnas, Walgreens/VillageMDs, Amazons, and fellow payers like Cigna and Elevance. HealthcareFinanceNews

#MedMo17: the conference, winning startups, Bayer, blockchain, and more

December 6, 2017 | by

[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/MedMo-header-crop.png” thumb_width=”150″ /]MedStartr Momentum‘s conference last week was extremely well attended, with 260 registrations over the two days at PricewaterhouseCooper’s NYC HQ. It jumped! (Disclaimers: your Editor is one of the hosts and co-organizers; TTA is a media partner) #MedMo17 had about 50-60 total speakers, presenters, and panelists in fast-moving sessions, most 10-15 minutes, with panels clocking under one hour.

What’s always unusual about MedStartr conferences is the mix of topics and people, and not just from NY. There were startups just getting going, successful startups sharing their stories, patient advocates, providers, and investors sharing what they want to see (and not see) before they fund. There was Deborah Estrin from Cornell Tech describing how they nurture graduate student tech entrepreneurs and Maria Gotsch from the Partnership Fund for NYC discussing how they accelerate, partner, pilot, and fund companies coming to market. One sponsor was nearby Newark NJIT’s NJ Innovation Institute–and one of the presenting companies was Uniphy Health (formerly PracticeUnite) that they’ve worked with and helped make successful over five years. Who would have expected a wild discussion about blockchain? Well, here, hosted by media personality/entrepreneur Ben Chodor (HealthTechTalk Live) with panelists ranging from a digital asset hedge fund founder to a patient advocate. For two panels, questions came from ‘the field’ via a Reddit ‘Ask Me Anything’.

Notably, Bayer G4A Generator, coordinated in the US by Aline Noizet, came on board as a sponsor. They came to the right place as they are seeking early-stage companies for Bayer Grants4Apps. In the US, they are seeking new companies developing self-care products: nutritionals/wellness, therapeutics (pain management, seasonal health), personal care (skin, sun, footcare), and self-care in general. Bayer also runs similar programs in Berlin (Accelerator and Dealmaker), Barcelona, Tokyo, Moscow, Singapore, Shanghai, and Italy.

Of the 18 Grand Challenge finalists competing for financing and guidance, the winners were: Population Health–Valisure (online pharmacy pre-screening meds); Wearables/Medical Devices–Alertgy (non-intrusive continuous blood glucose monitoring); Clinical Innovations–eCaring (at-home senior care monitoring), and in Killer Apps, a product that actually kills bad bacteria on the skin–Xycrobe (good recombinant bacteria for dermatological use). Special awards were given to Check with Ellie (breastfeeding questions answered, Momentum Award for growth) and MedAux (patient ed and HIPAA compliant messaging–Crowd Choice Award).

The full conference (Thursday and Friday) is up on video at Medstartr.tv. And in 2018, it will be 29-30 November, so put it in your calendar. Kudos to the MedStartr team, especially Alex Fair. Hat tip also to the NOLA (New Orleans) Health Innovation Challenge