Innovations often appear to be overnight successes, but there is usually one critical moment that moves a founder’s idea to reality. Drchrono, the first free iPad-native EHR app to be certified for Meaningful Use, is one such example.
The company recently received $675,000 of venture capital funding in July 2011, and another $650,000 in August 2011. However, the idea first clicked in 2009.
How did drchrono get on the innovation fast track?
In the above video, cofounder Daniel Kivatinos talks about his experience with a course called FastTrac from the Kauffman Foundation. This critical step in 2009 helped Kivatinos and his partner, Michael Nusimow, solidify their ideas and pursue health care innovation.
The idea for drchrono, Kivitanos says, came about when he was laid off from his job, “I had gotten laid off and I really wasn’t sure what I should do, should I pursue another career in what I was doing or should I go with something I really wanted to do. I had a dream to start my own company. Taking FastTrac really brought me to a certain level where I got the connections I needed.” Kivatinos and Nusimow took the course together.
The Kauffman Foundation says over half of the companies on the Dow Jones were started during Bear markets or a recession including Microsoft and the Walt Disney Company.
The Investing in Innovation (i2) Initiative from the ONC
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) recently launched a bold new program called, “The Investing in Innovation (i2) Initiative” designed to spur innovations in health IT.
If you are an mHealth innovator, the program currently has three developer challenges open for registration offering up to $40,000 in prizes:
- Reporting Device Adverse Events Challenge
- Apps Against Abuse Challenge
- Ensuring Safe Transitions from Hospitals to Home Challenge
Health 2.0 (in partnership with Capital Consulting Corporation) is managing the Challenge program for the ONC.
If you could create a mobile app for healthcare innovation, what would it be? Share your ideas in the comments below!
This guest post is by Angela Dunn, a consultant in social business innovation and a writer in healthcare technology. Dunn is also an official blogger for conferences related to innovation and healthcare. She is known as blogbrevity on Twitter where she leads a monthly chat on ideas with the hashtag, #ideachat. You can also follow Angela Dunn on Google+.
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- mHealth: Meaningful Use and the Pursuit of App-iness
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- Health IT Standards – A Week in Review
- Apathy in Health IT
- Stalled EMR/EHR innovation Due to Stimulus Focus?
