Summary:
«There are a bevy of reasons health technology can be inaccessible for low-income patients, according to Lyles. For example, a startup might only offer services in English or struggle with misconceptions about the market opportunity to serve Medicaid populations. In other cases, companies may not know how to reach low-income patients. To help the latter category of startups, Lyles co-founded S.O.L.V.E. Health Tech in 2019 with Dr. Urmimala Sarkar, a UCSF clinician. «
«“We’re near Silicon Valley, so a lot of digital health companies would come ad hoc to us to learn more about patient populations,” Lyles said. “In 2019, we systematized all of those arrangements and projects, deciding it would be much more efficient for us to work with companies in parallel and try to be more propulsive.”»
«Some accelerators take equity stakes in the startups they work with, but Lyles said that would be “really challenging” given that UCSF is a public entity. Instead, S.O.L.V.E. Health Tech pursues collaborative research projects with companies that span 12-18 months and focus on better tailoring health tech to the needs of low-income patients. The accelerator, funded through the university, is made up of research and clinical staff who span different expertise. «
Article written by Katie Adams.
06|07|2022
Source:
MedCity News