LaunchTN, PYA hold inaugural “Healthcare Connection” forum with seven start-ups
By Tom Ballard, Director of Innovation and Entrepreneurial Initiatives, Pershing Yoakley & Associates, P.C.
Seven start-up companies focused on the healthcare sector participated in yesterday’s inaugural “Healthcare Connection” program sponsored by Launch Tennessee and Pershing Yoakley & Associates, P.C. (PYA), the sponsor of teknovation.biz.
The event was a first of its kind for the two sponsoring organizations. It linked Launch Tennessee, the statewide organization focused on growing Tennessee’s high-growth technology sector, with PYA, a 30-year old Knoxville-based professional services firm that has grown to become the nation’s 10th largest privately held healthcare consulting company.
In spite of an unexpected snow event, representatives of the seven companies presented their business plans to nearly 20 individuals that included angel and venture capitalists, other potential investors, and consultants from PYA.
One of the goals of the event was to provide feedback to the start-up entrepreneurs to help them better position themselves to serve hospitals, health systems, and physician practices which are the core customer base for PYA.
“PYA was a start-up with three employees 30 years ago,” PYA President Ed Pershing told the entrepreneurs. “We know your challenges, and we want to help contribute to your success.”
PYA and its four affiliates – The Realty Trust Group, Healthcare Horizons, Inc., PYA Waltman Capital, and PYA Analytics, LLC – employ almost 270 people with the corporate headquarters in Knoxville and other offices in Atlanta, Kansas City, Nashville and Tampa Bay. The four affiliates were all start-ups.
Several of the presenting companies participated in Launch Tennessee’s “The TENN” inaugural master accelerator. Others were already in business before “The TENN” was launched last year.
“We know there is tremendous synergy between our start-up and corporate communities,” said Jill Van Beke, Director of Corporate Engagement. “Programs like ‘Healthcare Connection’ help develop relationships to maximize those opportunities.”
The seven companies were:
- Agile Health, Inc., a mobile healthcare solutions provider. (Read more here: Agile Health)
- Diagnovus, a company focused on delivering personalized diagnostic information and services to physicians treating patients suffering from aggressive, underserved and less frequent diseases. (Read more here: Diagnovus)
- dVisit, a mobile application that helps doctors manage patient volume, clear exam rooms for serious illnesses, and garner additional revenue while also helping patients get timely expert advice from their personal doctor and save time. (Read more here: dVisit)
- Evermind, a mobile app that: (1) gathers cost-saving information from devices and apps and empowers members to conveniently share it with their healthcare team; and (2) utilizes a web dashboard to help organizations to view population progress; see who’s on track to meet, exceed, or miss their daily goal; and pass encouragement, recommendations, or rewards to keep individual members engaged and on track to meet their recommended daily activity level. (Read more here: Evermind)
- fwdHealth, a company that has developed a monitoring system to help seniors age-in-place as an alternative to long-term care facilities (assisted living /nursing homes). (Read more here: FwdHealth)
- Hubble Telemedical, a company that offers specialty eye exams in convenient, non-specialty settings, such as primary care and retail health clinics. (Read more here: Hubble)
- Medalogix, a company focused on assisting post-acute providers with the emerging requirements on acute care facilities to reduce readmissions and the changing payment models. (Read more here: Medalogix)
