Rock Health’s Boston Demo Day Yields Seven Startups

In case you’ve lost track of Demo Days around here, there’s a pretty interesting one happening today. Rock Health, the grant-giving healthcare accelerator that started in San Francisco, is holding its inaugural Rock Boston Demo Day at the Broad Institute in Cambridge, MA, at 2 pm.

You could be forgiven for confusing the various health-tech programs that have popped up over the past year or two (especially since they almost all have “health” in their names). Besides Rock Health, there is Healthbox (now in Boston), Blueprint Health (New York), West Health Incubator (San Diego), and others.

But Rock Health is certainly one of the pioneers (see my colleague Wade’s previous coverage here and here). The Boston program is run by Sarah Pollet, Rock Health’s chief operating officer. The inaugural East Coast class consists of seven startups, which I’ll preview below, but if you want the inside scoop, you’ll have to come to the Broad this afternoon. The venerable John Halamka from Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel is giving the keynote.

Here are the seven Rock Boston startups:

—Home Team Therapy is using video and Microsoft’s Kinect to help people exercise at home.

—Neumitra is using data-driven tech to address the effects of stress on health and lifestyle.

—NeuroTrack Technologies is developing tools to diagnose Alzheimer’s and mild cognitive impairment.

—NoviMedicine is developing a virtual office visit platform for dermatology.

—Podimetrics is working on a home device to combat diabetic foot ulcers.

—Reify Health is developing tools for medical experts to use in mobile health interventions.

—RxApps is using text messaging and Web apps to help patients track their illnesses.

Author: Gregory T. Huang

Greg is a veteran journalist who has covered a wide range of science, technology, and business. As former editor in chief, he overaw daily news, features, and events across Xconomy's national network. Before joining Xconomy, he was a features editor at New Scientist magazine, where he edited and wrote articles on physics, technology, and neuroscience. Previously he was senior writer at Technology Review, where he reported on emerging technologies, R&D, and advances in computing, robotics, and applied physics. His writing has also appeared in Wired, Nature, and The Atlantic Monthly’s website. He was named a New York Times professional fellow in 2003. Greg is the co-author of Guanxi (Simon & Schuster, 2006), about Microsoft in China and the global competition for talent and technology. Before becoming a journalist, he did research at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab. He has published 20 papers in scientific journals and conferences and spoken on innovation at Adobe, Amazon, eBay, Google, HP, Microsoft, Yahoo, and other organizations. He has a Master’s and Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, and a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.