The intersection of health and technology is a challenging and rewarding place to start a business. In Austin, it’s a busy intersection indeed. 

Intrepid healthtech startups have been among the city’s most high-profile innovators and most successful fundraisers, leveraging world-class learning institutions, bustling hospitals, and a highly collaborative tech circuit.

Here are companies working across various areas of healthcare and pointing the way toward a more efficient healthcare system. Some are hiring, some have received impressive funding, and all are making their mark on the city and the world.

Findhelp is a social services search engine “connecting people and programs.” Its powerful nationwide referral network covers the healthcare spectrum and also includes food, transit, baby supplies and other essentials. The company, which describes itself as “leading the modernization of the social safety net,” has turned a simple idea into one of the city’s most prominent startup successes. 

Carrot Fertility offers a healthtech platform for comprehensive fertility care and family planning. Sold as a supplement to traditional health plans — many of which have limited fertility coverage and onerous requirements for how it’s used — Carrot Fertility offers cost-efficient pricing plans to employers, who use its services to provide appealing benefits to recruit and retain top talent.

Ascension is a not-for-profit, faith-based healthcare organization that delivers care and resources to vulnerable populations. With a focus on underprivileged and underserved groups, Ascension Health aims to support every patient throughout their healthcare journeys. The company has adopted cutting edge healthtech and now offers virtual visits, streamlined digital paperwork and online bill payment systems to help smoothen the process of receiving care.

Bright Health offers a wide variety of individual, family and Medicare insurance plans that are designed to fit the specific needs of most situations. Bright Health provides health insurance products, plans and services directly to consumers through broker partners. Those insured by the company are able to access a wide variety of healthcare professionals, specialists and pharmacies that all help to provide individualized treatment options.

Clinical documentation at hospitals isn’t always accurate. Fortunately, Iodine Software launched in 2010 to change that. The healthtech startup leverages machine learning analytics to interpret clinical data and ensure its validity.

ESO builds software for companies and practitioners across the healthcare spectrum, public and private, with a focus on patient records. ESO’s Health Data Exchange is the first interoperability product of its kind. When patients are hospitalized, it makes sure all the essential information is available and neatly organized, no matter what electronic health record systems the patient’s previous providers have used.

ClearDATA is a company dedicated to healthcare cloud computing and information security services for healthcare providers. ClearDATA’s HIPAA-compliant cloud computing is designed for helping with compliance, IT and security services across the entire healthcare field. The company is trusted by over 350,000 healthcare professionals to safely guard patient data and power medical applications.

This multifaceted healthtech startup connects patients with pharmacists, creates volumes of content around health topics, and has built a thriving community. Digital Pharmacist is more than a collection of health-related articles and videos (all of which are heavily vetted by pharmacists, by the way). It also streamlines communication between pharmacies and customers, makeing it easier to get a refill, and even help figure out copays.

B.well Connected Health provides users with powerful software that integrates data from all sources to provide complete access to individual health records and history. The platform provides complete analysis of bodily metrics like blood sugar, readouts of active medication and a complete history of surgeries, procedures and recent encounters to eliminate second guessing while keeping health in check.

EverlyWell provides convenient, at-home health tests with results you can actually understand. Users first order a test from their website that arrives to your doorstep in three business days, then they collect their sample in their home and send to one of the laboratories for analysis. Once a board-certified physician reviews it, the results are available online for viewing. This non-traditional way of health testing has revolutionized public access to kits testing for cardiovascular issues, metabolism, inflammation, fertility, food sensitivity and more, while drastically cutting out-of-pockets costs with tests ranging from $59 to $399.

Medici’s set on fundamentally changing the way we access healthcare through a mobile app that allows doctors to meet with their patients virtually. Their growing team is headquartered in Austin but includes employees on six continents.

Athenahealth is a leading provider of cloud-based services for electronic health records (EHR), revenue cycle management and medical billing, patient engagement, care coordination, and population health management, as well as Epocrates and other point-of-care mobile apps. The award-winning company (over 15 national recognitions within the last six years) continues to push innovation through their More Disruption Please (MDP) program, which hosts events bringing together fresh thinkers to create solutions that reduce the barrier to entries for companies in the health care space.

Cariloop provides an online hub for healthcare providers to connect with elderly patients and their caregivers, providing solid medical advice and social support. According to the company’s figures, 17 percent of the population currently cares for the elderly approximately 21 hours per week, weathering significant stress and expense. As the population ages and life expectancies increase, social networks such as Cariloop will grow more essential.

Founded by Kristin Karchmer, who draws on experience treating 7,000 infertile couples, Conceivable builds a cutting-edge fertility program that is integrated, personally tailored, and supportive throughout a difficult process. Fertility treatments are one of the biggest games in healthcare. Progress has been made, but many couples still struggle to conceive. Conceivable distinguishes itself by treating users not as nameless customers in need of a wonder drug, but as individuals with particular reasons for not being able to get pregnant and particular needs as they get closer to doing so.

A hospitalist is a dedicated in-patient physician who works exclusively in a hospital or hospitals, and Hospitalists Now builds tech products for those in this hard-working, high-pressure sector. The company’s flagship product is HM VitalSigns, a technology suite that reports key performance indicators, helps cut costs, and strengthens revenue cycles.

Lumeris is healthcare with an MBA and unstoppable IT. Since 2001, it has been one of the big names in value-based healthcare management systems, streamlining processes to cut costs and increase doctor and patient satisfaction. It offers workflows, technology tools, and consulting services. In 2012, Lumeris established a technology innovation center in Austin to tap into the city’s growing pool of tech talent. It continues to staff up, expand nationally, take home innovation awards.

SocialCare by Health Symmetric established itself as a healthcare platform powered by open innovation and accelerated by data science. Health Symmetric has created SocialCare, the first-ever Meaningful Use (Government Certified) Electronic Health Platform with social networking features which connect doctors, patients, care teams, pharmas, ancillary healthcare providers, and extended care teams such as fitness and diet care. It uses Data Science, Big Data and distributed clouds to pull information from health platforms to inform change and improvements across the entire spectrum of healthcare. 

UnaliWear’s main product is the Kanega Watch, a component of a larger personal emergency response system. The watch is voice-controlled, nearly indestructible, and remarkably stylish for a product of its sort — it looks like a regular watch, just a little bit cooler. This company applies its knowledge of the buzzing AI and wearables fields to help vulnerable users live and thrive with independence and dignity.

As an independent company from Essilor of America, Inc. and Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, VisionWeb, delivers the speed, efficiency, and connectivity of the Internet to all participants in the eyecare industry – enhancing their productivity and profitability with a single resource to serve their informational, educational, and commerce needs. VisionWeb continues to pioneer technology that enables the eyecare industry to automate business processes and increase efficiency. We pride ourselves on creating an open and neutral exchange on the Internet by working with eyecare professionals, suppliers, laboratories, software providers, and other industry leaders. It is our goal to always stay progressive in the industry and uphold the VisionWeb mission.

Wellsmith provides a digital platform to engage people in their own health management. Currently providing trials for Type II Diabetes, the platform will soon have trials for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and Congestive Heart Failure. Wellsmith is working to reverse chronic diseases and help people take back control of their health.

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