HOUSTON, Dec. 9, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via PRWEB - Texas Medical Center (TMC) and Village Capital, a managed investment fund and nonprofit focused on supporting impact-driven entrepreneurs, have joined forces for the VilCap USA: Health IT 2014 program, which will support early-stage businesses that are seeking digital health and business solutions to make healthcare more affordable and of a higher quality for all Americans.
The program is structured in four intensive four-day sessions over three months, with two in Houston and two in Salt Lake City. The sessions at TMC will be held December 7-10 and February 18-21. Village Capital's unique program model allows the entrepreneurs themselves to select the business they feel is most deserving of investment, rather than leaving the decision to investors, analysts or a judging panel. Village Capital and TMC have committed a total $100,000 investment to the program. Throughout the process, participating entrepreneurs will assess one another and at the end of the program, the two highest-ranking businesses will each receive $50,000.
The twelve startup companies selected for participation range from software development and mobile technologies, to enhanced communication and patient care coordination. The companies include:
- 1DocWay builds telepsychiatry networks for hospitals to help them expand reach and create new revenue streams.
- AsthmaMD is set to modernize asthma care with an innovative mobile application and easy-to-use Peak Flow Meter to gauge lung performance.
- BoardRounds saves lives and money with better emergency room follow-up care.
- Hybrent builds intuitive solutions for hospitals to reduce medical supply expenses, provide patient visibility, and integrate with trading partners.
- iRxReminder is a mobile patient data gathering and monitoring for ensuring patient compliance in research and healthcare delivery.
- Healarium enables physicians to capture new billing opportunities with services now reimbursable by Medicare (chronic care management, annual wellness visits, and transitions of care), in an efficient and scalable way with patient friendly, clinically appropriate care plans.
- NavAssist is a cancer navigation platform that promotes communication and transparency between cancer patients and their care providers.
- Seratis builds a network of providers and family members around a patient in order to better coordinate care inside and outside the hospital.
- Speak MODalities creates software apps that help kids with autism learn speech and language skills.
- Symptify is a virtual doctor visit that uses a patent- pending, algorithmic engine to help users narrow the causes of their symptoms, find the closest place to get care and give a heads-up when going to a facility.
- Uberhealth enables children staying away from their parents to manage their elder's well-being from a distance.
- VerbalCare focuses on channeling the patient voice in a way that delivers actionable insight for clinicians.
TMC and Village Capital will provide mentorship, business development, technology and access to local leaders, investors and potential customers. Businesses in the program will have access to the largest collection of top physicians, scientists and business expertise on one campus.
TMC is the largest medical complex in the world, serving 7.2 million patients annually. It is comprised of 55 member institutions including 21 renowned hospitals, three medical schools, eight academic and research institutions, six nursing programs, three universities, two pharmacy schools and a dental school.
Village Capital has supported 400 enterprises across 30 accelerator programs in nine countries over the past four years. The organization has also screened 10,000 companies providing business solutions to major social problems, with enterprises reaching six million customers, creating 6,000 jobs and raising more than $100 million in follow-on capital.
VilCap USA will be housed within TMC's 100,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art Innovation Institute and will complement TMC's accelerator program, TMCx, which will launch in March. All Village Capital entrepreneurs will be encouraged to apply to TMCx.
About Texas Medical Center
The largest medical complex in the world, the Texas Medical Center is internationally recognized and home to many of the nation's best hospitals, physicians, educational institutions, researchers, and the largest concentration of life-sciences experts. For the first time in its history, the Texas Medical Center has aligned the multi-institutional expertise to formulate five institutions dedicated to: Health Policy, Research, Regenerative Medicine, Genomics, and Innovation. Together, these institutions will advance the Texas Medical Center as the global leader in human health and life sciences.
About Village Capital
Village Capital sources, trains and invests in seed-stage social entrepreneurs around the world. Village Capital recruits entrepreneurs solving specific problems in agriculture, energy, education, financial inclusion, and health, and then puts the power of investment in the hands of the entrepreneurs, who award the prize investments to the two ventures ranked highest by their peers at the end of every program. The organization's unique peer-selection model and curriculum were awarded Mckinsey/Harvard Business Review's prestigious M-Prize for innovation in 2013.
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