HealthTech - Enterprise Innovation Institute

Georgia Tech’s ATDC hosts federal health technology summit, mental health panel discussion

Kirk Barnes, health technology catalyst at Georgia Tech's ATDC, welcomes a HealthTech entrepreneurs to the Federal Healthcare Innovation Summit co-hosted by NASCO Sept. 12, 2018. (Photo: Péralte C. Paul) — Kirk Barnes, health technology catalyst at Georgia Tech’s ATDC, welcomes a HealthTech entrepreneurs to the Federal Healthcare Innovation Summit co-hosted by NASCO Sept. 12, 2018. (Photo: Péralte C. Paul)

A core tenet of the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Enterprise Innovation Institute (EI2) mission is the use of innovation and ideation not only to drive economic development in Georgia and beyond, but to improve and advance the human condition.

On Sept. 13, 2018, EI2’s ATDC incubator — led by its health technology catalyst, Kirk L. Barnes, hosted two important events, the first with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to connect federal health agencies with HealthTech startups’ solutions and technologies.

HHS, which runs the largest balance sheet of any organization in the world at nearly $1.3 trillion a year, wants to better connect with HealthTech entrepreneurs and the solutions they have for the healthcare sector and related fields. The ATDC Federal Healthcare Innovation Summit was co-hosted by NASCO, a leading provider of information technology products and services designed help U.S. healthcare payers, and sponsor of the ATDC HealthTech Program.

“The main goal of what we’re doing here today is total a very inward facing organization and turn it outward, and give everybody an opportunity to interact with us,” said Ed Simcox, HHS’ chief technology officer.

The second event was ATDC’s Silence The Shame for mental health awareness, which was sponsored by Atlanta-based Cox Enterprises and coincided with September being designated as National Suicide Awareness Prevention Month. That effort, which was an interactive panel discussion with hip-hop music industry executive Shanti Das and other leading experts in mental health and wellness, sought to highlight the role technology can play in mental health and in reducing the stigma of discussing depression and suicide as part of Das’ Silence The Shame initiative.

Ed Simcox, chief technology officer for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, addresses attendees of the Federal Healthcare Innovation Summit co-hosted by ATDC and NASCO Sept. 12, 2018. (Photo: Péralte C. Paul)

From left, Dr. Richard Wild, chief medical officer for the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Atlanta Region, Chaouki T. Abdallah, Georgia Tech's executive vice president for research, and Kirk Barnes, health technology catalyst at ATDC. (Photo: Péralte C. Paul) — From left: Dr. Richard Wild, chief medical officer for the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Atlanta Region; Chaouki T. Abdallah, Georgia Tech’s executive vice president for research, and Kirk Barnes, ATDC’s health technology startup catalyst at the Federal Healthcare Innovation Summit co-hosted by ATDC and NASCO Sept. 12, 2018. (Photo: Péralte C. Paul)

Panelists address issues related to mental health and how to move away from the stigma of discussing mental health, depression and warning signs of suicide at the ATDC and Cox Enterprises-sponsored Silence The Shame Panel Sept. 12, 2018. (Photo: Ben Andrews)

Advanced Technology Development Center and NASCO to host ATDC Federal Healthcare Innovation Summit

Summit is part of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ national

Startup Days tour to showcase opportunities for entrepreneurs and coders.

HHS Idea Lab

The Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) is hosting the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HSS) and several other federal agencies in a daylong conference designed to connect them with local entrepreneurs and startups in the health and government technology sectors.

The ATDC Federal Healthcare Innovation Summit will be held September 12 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at ATDC. (Register here.) It is being co-hosted by NASCO, a leading provider of information technology products and services designed help U.S. healthcare payers, and sponsor of the ATDC HealthTech Program.

HHS officials, including Edward Simcox, the agency’s chief technology officer, are coming to Atlanta as part of the department’s Startup Days tour of eight cities across the United States.

Startup Days aims to engage entrepreneurs, inform them of HHS’ processes and funding opportunities, and feature a “Shark Tank” pitch competition for select HealthTech and GovTech startups. (Apply for the Shark Tank pitch competition here.)

“Health and Human Services, through its HHS Idea Lab, is always trying to find new ways to interact and engage with entrepreneurs in the technology and health spaces,” said Kirk Barnes, ATDC HealthTech catalyst. “We are excited to help facilitate connections between HHS and Georgia’s technology ecosystem and we’ve expanded this initiative to include several federal agencies that have an interest in HealthTech innovation.”

Other federal agencies participating in the ATDC Federal Healthcare Innovation Summit include the:

U.S. Food and Drug Administration
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
National Institutes of Health
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology

With the Shark Tank competition, startups selected to participate will be asked to deliver their five-minute pitches that will include information related to:

Traction
Ingenuity of idea
Problem solution fit
Market fit
Scalability
Potential to work with HHS

After the pitches, healthcare leaders from across HHS, will provide constructive feedback to help entrepreneurs get a better understanding of how they can better engage with federal agencies.

Following the Summit., ATDC is hosting Silence the Shame: Bringing Together Technology, Entertainment, and Academia to Address Mental Health for National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month will take place from 5 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in Tech Square. (Click here for more details.)

About the HHS Idea Lab

The Health and Human Services IDEA Lab, within the Office of the Chief Technology Officer, was established to encourage and enable innovation at HHS. We help HHS explore, test and accelerate solutions that improve the delivery of health and human services. The IDEA Lab is the Department’s go-to resource to solve complex problems with innovative approaches and best practices from federal agencies, industry, and non-profits. To learn more, visit, hhs.gov/idealab.

About the Advanced Technology Development Center

The Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC), a program of the Georgia Institute of Technology, is the State of Georgia’s technology startup incubator. Founded in 1980 by the Georgia General Assembly which funds it each year, ATDC’s mission is to work with entrepreneurs in Georgia to help them learn, launch, scale, and succeed in the creation of viable, disruptive technology companies. Since its founding, ATDC has grown to become one of the longest running and most successful university-affiliated incubators in the United States, with its graduate startup companies raising more than $2 billion in investment financing and generating more than $12 billion in revenue in the State of Georgia. To learn more, visit atdc.org.

About NASCO

NASCO provides an integrated suite of information technology products and services that help healthcare payers address unique business challenges and revolutionize business operations. Owned by and exclusively serving Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plans for more than 30 years, NASCO provides seamless benefit management, eligibility, membership, billing and claims processing support for Blue Plans, allowing them to provide competitive healthcare products in federal, state and multistate markets for nearly 25 million members. NASCO’s partnership with multiple Blue Plans cultivates a community that fosters the collaboration needed to promote innovation, deliver shared solutions and create a competitive cost advantage. NASCO is shaping the future of healthcare IT. For more information, visit nasco.com.

Georgia Tech to launch health technology initiative at the Advanced Technology Development Center

NASCO’s gift to the Institute will support development

of health technology entrepreneurs and startups in Georgia.

NASCO, a leading provider of information technology products and services designed to help healthcare payers across the United States address unique business challenges and revolutionize business operations, is making a significant commitment to Georgia Tech’s Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) to create a new initiative for entrepreneurs in healthcare-focused technology.

The ATDC Health Technology (HealthTech) Program is slated to formally launch in July and Atlanta-based NASCO’s gift will provide the initial funding to support the current and future HealthTech startups in ATDC’s portfolio. The initiative is the third of its kind at ATDC and follows other gifts used to launch programs in the financial and retail technology sectors.

“NASCO views this partnership with the ATDC and the launch of the HealthTech initiative as critical to our mission to deliver innovative health services and to support the Georgia healthcare and technology communities,” said David Weeks, NASCO’s chief technology officer. “Healthcare is a highly interconnected ecosystem, and new technologies are helping us to both reduce customer friction and improve health outcomes. The HealthTech vertical will be a key incubator of new ideas to enable these changes.”

In addition to one-on-one coaching and resources for commercial success, the funds also will support healthcare-focused commercialization workshops, hackathons, and hosting industry thought leaders in healthcare innovations in regulation, production, and manufacturing.

The more than 40 startups in ATDC’s current HealthTech portfolio are building companies with innovative approaches to population health, caregiver support, billing fraud, precision medicine, genomics, medical devices, diagnostics, data analytics, and process improvements in drug research.

“Healthcare systems across the U.S. as well as the patients in their care continue to explore ways to leverage innovation and technology to reduce costs, improve patient satisfaction, eliminate waste, increase access, and improve outcomes,” said Kirk Barnes, ATDC’s HealthTech catalyst and who spearheaded the development of this initiative. “We are extremely excited about the partnership with NASCO. The company embraces innovation and technology to improve the way that healthcare is delivered.”

The NASCO partnership will help the Georgia economy by helping entrepreneurs launch viable companies in the state, said ATDC Interim Director Jane McCracken.

“We look forward to working with NASCO to establish this program for HealthTech entrepreneurs,” McCracken said. “We will leverage NASCO’s market knowledge and that of other leading companies in the sector. Combined with Georgia Tech’s expertise and organizations throughout the state, we will help entrepreneurs develop and bring to market dynamic, leading-edge technologies that will benefit healthcare providers, payers, and patients.”

About NASCO

About Georgia Tech

The Georgia Institute of Technology is one of the world’s premier research universities. Georgia Tech is a national and international leader in scientific and technological research and education and is the nation’s leading producer of engineers as well as a leading producer of female and minority engineering Ph.D. graduates. Ranked among the top public universities by U.S. News & World Report, the Institute enrolls more than 25,000 undergraduate and graduate students in fields ranging from engineering, computing, and sciences, to business, design, and liberal arts. For additional information, visit gatech.edu.

About the Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC)

The Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC), a program of the Georgia Institute of Technology, is the state of Georgia’s technology startup incubator. Founded in 1980 by the Georgia General Assembly which funds it each year, ATDC’s mission is to work with entrepreneurs in Georgia to help them learn, launch, scale, and succeed in the creation of viable, disruptive technology companies. Since its founding, ATDC has grown to become one of the longest running and most successful university-affiliated incubators in the United States, with its graduate startup companies raising $3 billion in investment financing and generating more than $12 billion in revenue in the state of Georgia. To learn more, visit atdc.org.