Reaching Health Equity
It is more clear than ever that health systems lack transparency, trust, and meaningful improvement to provide access and quality to all.
It is more clear than ever that the effect of public health challenges are felt most among people of color, indigenous, rural, LGBTQ and so many other underserved communities.
It is more clear than ever that now is the time to accelerate public health innovation through entrepreneurship to bring power to the people.
Application Deadline: May 27th, 2022
Accelerator Overview
What is the Public Health Innovation Accelerator?
The Accelerator is an 8-week program that transforms early-stage ideas and prototypes into market ready ventures with public health impact. Venture teams are brought into a collaborative community of mentors, speakers, and peers who support each others development. All online. At no cost.
What do we do?
8 venture teams will be chosen via applications and we offer weekly lectures and coaching with multi-sectoral leaders from around the world to help venture teams reach objectives during and beyond the Accelerator.
Program Stages
Co-Creating with the Community
Start Date: 6.8.22
Human-Centered Design & Prototyping
Public Health Evaluation Planning
Market Research & Financial Forecasting
Demo Day Presentations
7.28.22
Who we are looking for and requirements
- Venture teams with at least an initial prototype that are looking to move into the next stages in order to launch or grow a new product, service, or organization.
- Co-founders with complementary talents: public health, science and engineering, tech development, business, finance, marketing, art and design, etc.
- We encourage startups from any sector to apply. Startups can be nonprofit, for-profit or hybrid ventures.
There is no equity requirement.
2021 Demo Day Top Ventures
MUFG 1st Place Prize
Sponsored by:
2nd Place Prize
3rd Place Prize
Ventures at Firefly Innovations
Mendü is a wellness and mental health platform that offers therapeutic audio-based prompts and exercises for underserved women to better their mental health. Mendü’s goal is to change the way mental health is managed by utilizing MLS and AI technology.
Demetria Fortson
Co-Founder
Regina Zheng
Co-Founder
A zero-stigma, contextual, multi-modal mental health AI platform for college-age youth. Jeeva is a smartphone app that does screening for depression, mood and anxiety and delivers appropriate psycho, social and behavioral coping skills in real- time. It delivers both educational content and CBT-based interventions in easy to learn text & peer-partnered discussions.
Sudhakar Kaushik
Co-Founder & CEO
Mitch Harris
Co-Founder & CTO
Young Jo
Medical Director
Praduman Raparia
Director of Engineering
Yrikka is the ranked marketplace for buying, selling and scoring AI. The score generated by Yrikka’s proprietary scoring mechanism provides an all encompassing overview of the real-world readiness of an AI technology. In the context of healthcare, this score evaluates the potential impact that the technology can have on health equity.
Kia Khezeli
Co-Founder & CEO
John Kalantari
Co-Founder & CTO
HEQ360 helps healthcare organizations address health disparities through a data-driven identification, and prioritization of target population for customized outreach activities and interventions. The vision is to create an ecosystem of integrated stakeholders, data sources, and service providers to achieve health equity goals.
Hemant Lanjewar
Founder
Maternal Preservation
A postpartum hemorrhage AR simulator to improve patient outcomes in low resource countries. Maternal Preservation aims to reduce mortality rates from these situations by making training more accessible with lower costs.
Sanjit Singh
Developer
Niha Baviriseaty
Internal Medicine Resident Physician
Bharath Raj
Developer
Daniel (Kaihao) Lam
MD Candidate
Accelerator Mentors and Speakers
Erin Hagan
DEPUTY DIRECTOR EVIDENCE FOR ACTION
Desiree Elder
EXECUTIVE VISIONARY, THE DREAM CENTER HARLEM
Cynthia Vance
ENTREPRENEURSHIP PROFESSOR, START UP MENTOR, ANGEL INVESTOR
Ashish Joshi
SENIOR ASSOCIATE DEAN OF ACADEMIC AND STUDENT AFFAIRS, AND PROFESSOR, CUNY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH & HEALTH POLICY
Julia Fisher
INVESTMENT ANALYST, VILLAGE CAPITAL
Enrique Shadah
Founding Director, Expert Collective Cooperative
Nicholas Hoffmann
MANAGING DIRECTOR, HEALTHCARE BANKING, MUFG
Olivia Chioma Elee
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT EXPERT
Get to Know + About Us
Philosophy
We are passionate about cultivating entrepreneurs and connecting innovation opportunities and resources in underserved communities that can most benefit from innovation. Technology, systems innovations, and new business models focused on the social and environmental determinants of health and tailored to community needs are necessary for achieving ambitious public health goals and narrowing health disparities. We believe in a trans-disciplinary approach to public health innovation by bringing entrepreneurs together with mentors, public health experts, systems change experts, tech partners, investors and researchers from a wide range of fields who are dedicated to helping communities transform ideas into reality.
Our Ventures
Participating ventures come from any sector and produce public health impact. Venture teams can be a nonprofit, for-profit or social ventures. Teams are made up of all backgrounds and disciplines. Ventures do not have to be in the health sector or be made up of health professionals to qualify. Whether participants are scientists, lawyers, marketers, engineers, artists, students or teachers, they all become public health entrepreneurs through this accelerator.
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