TiE: Entrepreneurs Make Their Pitches (and some were really good)

Boston Microfluidics
Run existing ELIZA tests on a microfluidic chip
One finger prick or urine sample
8 diseases/20 mins turnaround

CAVU
Domestic social venture firm
Initiatives include ADHD and childhood obesity outreach; buying gym machine for kids

Common Impact
Need a qualified volunteer from corporate America to help your non-profit? Call in the folks from Common Impact. Their expertise includes websites, medical records systems, etc.

Klapperich Lab
We'll cover them in depth later. They made disposable, microfluidic diagnostics running protein and nucleic acid assays. At least that's what my notes say. Not only do they have the technology to prove it, they have the vision to think about design for local manufacturibility for easy tech transfer into emerging economies.

FIFth Base Gene Therapy
Business model is based on producing reagents for biotech industry. Long term goal is to produce their own gene therapy solutions.

IHO USA
IHO focuses medical missions and aid to the Indian subcontinent. The speaker stressed their approach of downplaying funding and making it up with volunteerism. They seemed to have a whole thesis on the fact that money was not as crucial as everyone thinks it is. I didn't understand why he jumped at the chance to name of their funders however.


Mobile Medics
Mobile Medics won $50K from the Global Social Venture Competition last year and wasted no time in buying a van and hiring 2 doctors and a nurse. Their operational model is simple, scalable, and covers 80 patients a day for $1.50 a patient. Part of the secret sauce: They are employing a biometric medical records system that an advance scout uses to organize the patients ahead of the medical team.

Sahaya
Offers holistic support for cancer patients. They include family members in the equation and have devised ways to help friends, family, and the patient cope with the non-health impact of cancer.

TeleEMG
They use a web-based an expert system that allows a primary physician to perform neurological assessments that catch Low Back Pain, Carpal Tunnel, and Diabetic Neuropathies faster than having to wait for a referral. I wonder if the "expert system" is going to suffer the same fate as the AI engine that dispenses legal advice until the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals shuttered it.

Zebra Med
Do you have 30 minutes to spare? Why not use your medical knowledge to help out with a case over telemedicine? The web based service allows doctors and volunteers to consult with other physicians overseas. They hope to include "MySpace for Doctors" and an aggregate system to store global medical information.