The companies selected for the newest AWS Healthcare Accelerator will focus on three critical needs in the healthcare space: retention, deployment and training, says Dr. Rowland Illing, chief medical officer and director of International Public Sector Health & the Global Healthcare Venture Capital and Startups team at AWS.

WHY IT MATTERS

AWS accelerators are technical, business and mentorship programs that help startups advance their digital solutions using the cloud, such as last year's AWS accelerator focusing on health equity. 

Mentors for the newest global healthcare workforce accelerator include the American Hospital Association, CATI, Deloitte, Intermountain Ventures and several others across the U.S. and EMEA.

In a blog post, Illing said this year's healthcare accelerator cohort members were selected from hundreds of applicants worldwide. 

He noted that many of the startups are helping providers "reduce individual workloads by removing friction in day-to-day processes, streamlining clinical workflows, reducing documentation burden, outsourcing basic tasks to artificial intelligence-enabled solutions and supporting well-being and flexible work arrangements."

Others, meanwhile, are focused on remote monitoring, secure information exchange, patient engagement, mobile health workforce and training tools. 

The nearly two-dozen firms in this new cohort are:

• Momo Medical. A "BedSense" App provides insights into the needs of memory care and nursing home residents. 
• eConsult. A digital triage and consultation platform for use across primary and emergency care.
• Navenio. The location-based solutions can help optimize the utilization of supporting teams throughout a hospital – like cleaners and allied health professionals.
• Babblevoice. A practice-wide communications system that can help free up primary care reception staff. 
• RxPlace. A business-to-business marketplace that helps manage pharmacy operations.
• Dropstat. An AI-powered staffing solution that automates staff management.
• Hypercare. A mobile suite of collaboration tools to automate manual processes and optimize switchboard operations.
• SQUID iQ. A platform that integrates siloed data and automates manual workflows and employs analytics.
• Doc Abode. Workforce management software that autogenerates healthcare staff schedules.
• Rose Health. Clinically validated behavioral health patient monitoring that can support mental health providers.
• IoT Solutions Group. Sensor-based monitoring of activity patterns to help support elder care and specialty care. 
• PathologyWatch. AI-assisted tools that interface directly with electronic health records and can optimize pathology workflows in dermatology practices. 
• The TeleDentists. Virtual delivery platform for acute, chronic, primary and specialty dental care that can reduce emergency room visits.
• Visionable. A platform that provides real-time, multi-streaming video solutions to aid in remote decision-making.
• InformMe. A platform that enables digital patient communication via mobile devices.
• Mytonomy. A video-based patient engagement platform that can send pre-op instructions and help improve patient safety and save nurses time.
• Kare Mobile. A mobile dentistry platform that can deliver comprehensive dentistry to underserved areas and support new practices.
• Supportiv. A peer-to-peer emotional and social support platform that supplements professional care. 
• Grapefruit Health. It recruits and trains clinical students to support understaffed healthcare organizations.
• MOONHUB. A virtual reality platform that can deliver cost-effective training for care homes.
• Proximie. A platform that allows clinicians to enter operating rooms and cardiac catheterization labs virtually to enable real-time guidance and second opinions.
• Compassly. A mobile application that manages team skills and ensures compliance standards. 
• Florence. A virtual training platform that connects long-term care homes and hospitals with background-checked nurses and support workers.

THE LARGER TREND

Jeff Kratz, AWS general manager, Worldwide Public Sector Partners, spoke with Healthcare IT News a few months back about the AWS healthcare accelerator initiatives – and how the cloud can help healthcare providers worldwide with tools that help address burnout and staffing shortages.

"While technology is not a silver bullet, we do believe it can be an enabler, and a key part of this is utilizing cloud-based technology that allows these solutions to scale," said Kratz.

He noted that the third critical area the accelerator attempts to address – deploying the workforce – speaks to the growing trend to reach out to patients across the care continuum.

"Technologies that support decentralized care, like healthcare in virtual wards, community settings and home care settings, have huge potential." 

ON THE RECORD

"After stepping up to care for more than six million COVID-19 patients the last three years, our healthcare workforce is depleted," said Dr. Chris DeRienzo, chief physician executive of the AHA in the AWS post. 

"To better lift up the workforce of today and grow the workforce of tomorrow, we must bring together both experts and innovators, and we must do it now. I’ve seen firsthand how technology can improve care processes, allowing both clinicians and support team members to spend more of their time improving patient outcomes."

Andrea Fox is senior editor of Healthcare IT News.
Email: afox@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.

Stephanie Chia, Russ Hinz and Susan Tolin will offer more detail in the HIMSS23 session "Equity on Chicago's South Side: Connected Care Technology." It is scheduled for Wednesday, April 19 at 1 p.m. - 2 p.m. CT at the South Building, Level 1, room S103.