PandemicX triggers technological innovation in healthcare community
According to a release from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Biden-Harris Administration is working to increase tech innovations and health equity in the wake of COVID-19 by launching a novel program to accelerate private-public collaboration called PandemicX.
The inaugural PandemicX 2022 cohort, which was comprised of 15 health technology startups, will highlight their tech innovations in a special PandemicX finale webinar. The webinar will take place on August 18, 2022, from 2:00 – 3:00 p.m. ET. Leaders from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will also participate in the event to share how PandemicX can be used as a model for future public-private health collaborations.
PandemicX is funded by HHS and managed by MassChallenge HealthTech, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting innovation and entrepreneurship through collaboration and development. The PandemicX startups were selected through a rigorous process. Sixty-six percent of the startups are both female-founded and minority-owned. The startup’s proposed solutions align with federal health challenges and address health equity barriers and other disparities exacerbated by COVID-19 using data and innovation.
Through the six-month program, the startups had access to curriculum, mentorship, resources, and other collaborations to scale their businesses and work towards creating actionable solutions to federal challenges. These include health equity by design; national public health solutions; behavioral and mental health; socioeconomic outcome indicators; and community resilience.
“The world needs technological and business innovation to increase equitable assets and to create a resilient society,” said Micky Tripathi, U.S. National Coordinator for Health IT. Tripathi continued, “we know HealthTech startups are a force of good to help make wellness, health, and wealth an accessible right, not a privilege. You cannot have health without resilience; you cannot have health without inclusion.”
“PandemicX has been a great way for us to create, based on experience, a model for how to improve the way the federal government can (and should) support innovation in the marketplace,” said Admiral Rachel Levine, HHS Assistant Secretary for Health.
