On Wednesday, Amazon's (NASDAQ: AMZN) cloud division announced ten early-stage startups were accepted into its health equity accelerator program, including three Bay Area-based companies.
The AWS Healthcare Accelerator is a four-week program that gives participating startups access to mentorship in collaboration with KidsX, another early-stage health accelerator that is managed by Children's Hospital Los Angeles and supported by a "consortium of children's hospitals" around the world, according to its website.
Startups in the program also get up to $25,000 in credits to use at AWS and "collaboration opportunities with AWS healthcare customers, industry leaders, and members of AWS Partner Network (APN) looking for healthcare solutions," according to a AWS press release.
AWS selected the startups from a pool of more than 250 applications, it said. According to a press release from May, when the application period opened, the program was looking for startups either based or operating in the U.S. that are working in the following areas related to health:
- "Increasing access to health services"
- "Reducing disparities by addressing social determinants of health"
- "Leveraging data to promote equitable and inclusive systems of care"
To qualify, startups also needed to have "a validated solution, existing customers and revenue" and "use or seek to use AWS to help solve the biggest challenges in public health," according to the May press release.
For example, San Francisco-based Pair Team is building an automated outreach and messaging platform to help primary care providers reach and stay connected with underserved communities.
“With AWS's support, we will further our technology investments to overcome administrative and social barriers so that our care teams can build strong patient relationships in their communities," Pair Team COO and co-founder Cassie Choi said in a statement.
Here are all 10 of the startups that were selected for AWS's health equity accelerator, including three from the Bay Area which are in bold.
- Clinify Health (Chicago) — supports Medicaid-managed care and other healthcare providers that work with vulnerable and low-income communities.
- ClosedLoop.ai (Austin) — using machine learning to create predictive models based on healthcare data.
- CognitiveCare (Milpitas) — using AI and machine learning to improve health outcomes for pregnant people and infants.
- Harmony Health (Pleasanton) — helping community organizations reach "vulnerable, hard to reach, and diverse communities" through a simple text messaging platform.
- Kinetik (Long Island City) — developing products and APIs to support healthcare transportation.
- Pair Team (San Francisco) — creating an automated messaging platform to connect primary care providers with underserved communities to increase access to both clinical and mental health care.
- Samaritan (Seattle) — connects people without a stable home with access to income, housing and health support services.
- SameSky Health (Los Angeles) — using data to address health care barriers and disparities in a culturally competent manner.
- Vincere Health (Boston) — developing a consumer app and program to encourage smoking cessation in "vulnerable, low income populations."
- Zócalo Health (Seattle) — bilingual and culturally competent telehealth services for Spanish-speaking families.
