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mHealth DemoCamp rocked

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The first ever mHealthDemoCamp was a huge success. We have more than 30 mobile health experts and entrepreneurs in room CR-3 at MaRS, a highly informative keynote, 6 five-minute demos, great Q&A, and then about ten of us went out for beers afterwards.

Mobile health is big and growing to huge. Half of US doctors already own an iPad. Half of clinicians collect data at bedside with a mobile. Ottawa Hospital rolled out 4000 iPads. Startup Funding is up 70%.

  • Duane Bender gave us an expert tour of the eHealth and mHealth ecosystem in Ontario & Canada & the World. Mohawk MEDIC has received about $8 million in government grants for their work, and Duane seems to know just about everything about the space.
  • Sergio DiGiovanni demo’d Qcard, including the upcoming feature that allows sharing your reminders and tasks with friends & family.
  • Kristina Lugo showed Drishti, which uses a forms builder tool that I wish I remembered the name of, to allow workers in developing nations to use Android Samsung Galaxy S phones to collect important public health information.
  • Taha Bandukwala showed off eTHR, currently in testing at hospitals in BC, northern Ontario, and South Africa. Doctors can save time and improve their record-keeping (and thus reduce risks around insurance and litigation) as they work on trauma cases.
  • Nick Ragaz and his colleague started a great discussion by showing Wellx, a tool for secure doctor-patient communication. They developed it while running a business to outsource the data entry for doctors offices from paper into their EMR. Doctors who are using Wellx say that it reduces the amount of time they spend on the phone, and they hope that some day soon this time will have a special billing code.
  • Kelly Grindrod showed us Cleremed. Kelly is a pharmacist as has seen a need to test seniors’ ability to properly read medicine labels. Cleremed runs users through a simulation.
  • I demonstrated some of our work at Monolith.

We also had people present from many other organizations:

  • Coral CEA has grants available for developing mHealth apps.
  • UHN’s massive Centre for Global Health Innovation does eHealth and mHealth research, including the leading bant app
  • OntarioMD, the OMA organization that provides specifications for EMRs in Ontario
  • and many more — sorry I didn’t have enough time to take more notes!

Want more? Check out upcoming events: (and let me know about others)

  • Healthcare Startups TO, organized by  Nick Ragaz, a great way to socialize and network
  • Toronto Mobile Health Summit, at the Holiday Inn Toronto Airport in January, although it’s a bit pricey for startups. Anyone want to sponsor?
  • AppsForHealth, in Hamilton, May 16.
  • Keep an eye on MaRS, who were awesome in providing the space to us for free.

Next: Lots of demand for a follow-up in 4-6 months, so watch this space (and follow @mHealthDemoCamp). If you’re interested in demo’ing at the next one, get a jump on the competition by letting us know now! (All demos are accepted provided they are mHealth apps 🙂

Conclusion: there is a mobile health ecosystem in Toronto & area! Let’s keep growing together.

—Simon