UCSF Rosenman Institute Connects Startups with Leading Health Care Companies to Scale Up Solutions Nationwide

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Apr 07, 2022, 08:00 ET

Laguna Health, MD Ally, Visana Health, XP Health Win Non-Dilutive Funding, Access to Resources to Enable Pilot Trials

SAN FRANCISCO, April 7, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The UCSF Rosenman Institute (Rosenman) announced today that four early-stage health care companies have been selected to pilot their technology with leading industry partners through the UCSF Rosenman ADAPT (ADAPT) program. Each startup will receive resources for piloting and scaling up their technology to help make health care more accessible, equitable, and efficient.

Laguna Health, MD Ally, Visana Health, and XP Health were the selected winners of ADAPT, an annual Rosenman program. ADAPT's goal is to benefit patients by accelerating the development, scaling, and adoption of new technologies that solve disparities in healthcare.

Through ADAPT, Rosenman pairs innovative early-stage companies with large industry players who have substantial reach and resources. The program's partners this year were Anthem, Blue Shield of California, Chicago Pacific Founders, Evernorth (a Cigna company), and Optum Labs, the research and development arm of UnitedHealth Group, who, all together, serve more than 200 million members.

"Large health care companies serve diverse patient demographics," said Christine Winoto, Rosenman's founder and director. "They are aware that a one-size-fits-all approach is not necessarily efficient, and may not deliver the care patients need. On the other side, entrepreneurs are quick to identify inefficiencies, and nimble in developing their solutions. But they often lack the resources or reach to scale up their services on a regional and national scale. That's why we created ADAPT."

Laguna Health is a digital-first home recovery platform that reduces costly hospital readmissions and shortens recovery time. Laguna marries a proven clinical model with a virtual care team, creating a personalized recovery plan based on the patient's physical, emotional, and social needs. "Hospital readmissions unnecessarily plague millions of people and cost billions of dollars annually, having a negative impact on all facets of a person's life," said Yoni Shtein, Laguna's co-founder and CEO. "Our mission at Laguna is to prevent the preventable and improve people's quality of life. We're honored to be selected to be part of the ADAPT program and expand the innovations that we are working on, and we're looking forward to piloting our platform with one of the largest managed healthcare companies."

"Making health more equitable and accessible is important so that everyone can reach their full potential," says Omid Toloui, VP of Innovation at Anthem, Inc. "As part of our commitment to increase access to innovative products and services, Anthem is committed to working with promising, early-stage companies. This helps advance our digital capabilities so we can better connect people to the care, support, and resources they need to lead healthy lives."

MD Ally integrates telehealth into 911 dispatch and EMS to facilitate remote, two-way audio/video encounters between patients, public safety systems, and clinical providers in real-time. "ADAPT will enable us to expand our team and digital footprint," said Shanel Fields, MD Ally's founder and CEO. "We are thrilled to work with a partner who has national reach."

"At CPF, we are committed to supporting organizations focused on elevating the quality of care while broadening healthcare access. MD Ally's solution has great promise to create more 911 care pathways, especially for people previously underserved by the healthcare system," said Mary Tolan, co-founder and managing partner at Chicago Pacific Founders. "Chicago Pacific is excited to support their development and expansion."

"At Evernorth, we are committed to solving our clients' and our patients' biggest healthcare challenges. Collaborating with forward-thinking start-ups is critical to driving transformative changes," said Glen Stettin, MD, chief innovation officer at Evernorth. "MD Ally is an innovative solution that connects people seeking emergency care with community-based health care services to improve health outcomes and reduce emergency wait times. We are excited to work with MD Ally to continue driving innovation for delivering care while reducing strain on our country's overburdened emergency medical system."

Visana Health is a virtual comprehensive women's health clinic that provides personalized, multidisciplinary, integrated care to improve outcomes and reduce cost by helping members avoid unnecessary gynecologic surgeries. "Being selected for ADAPT will enable us to improve patient access to our platform and generate additional evidence that supports the efficacy of our breakthrough care model," said Joe Connolly, Visana's co-founder and CEO.

"Visana is developing a better way to serve the health needs of women by improving the timely access to women's health services and by more efficiently meeting women's health needs," said Dr. David Cook, vice president of research at Optum Labs and a member of the Rosenman advisory board. "We look forward to supporting Visana's vision to help get their solution to patients faster."

XP Health is a modern vision care platform that partners with employers and insurance carriers to transform traditional vision benefits. XP Health uses artificial intelligence, augmented reality, customer-centric design, and care navigation to create a virtual-first approach for eye care and eyewear. "Our partnership through ADAPT will support us as we expand our reach and continue to improve the end-user experience and lower overall costs in a space that has seen minimal innovation over the last 20+ years," said Antonio Moraes, XP's co-founder and CEO.

"The customer experience for vision care needs to be reimagined," said Michael Ellis, VP, Corporate Development at Blue Shield of California. "Blue Shield looks forward to working with XP to bring modern and affordable vision benefits to the market."

For more information about ADAPT and Rosenman, contact [email protected].

About the UCSF Rosenman Institute 
The UCSF Rosenman Institute is QB3's health technology initiative. Based at the University of California, San Francisco, it is a community of investors, clinicians, and technology entrepreneurs who create solutions for unmet clinical needs. Its mission is to drive innovation and education and improve patient care by helping entrepreneurs from concept to commercialization. No UC affiliation is required to obtain support from Rosenman. Visit rosenmaninstitute.org.

SOURCE UCSF Rosenman Institute