Eight companies will share in $4.2 million to help streamline patient care coordination and medical record sharing in New York state. The early-to-middle stage health IT companies will receive up to $300,000 each.
The NY eHealth Collaborative and the Partnership for NYC fund sorted through more than 250 applications to find the first companies for their medical IT program, the NY Digital Health Accelerator.
The aim is to fill the communication gap between hospitals and other health care providers so that patients have better care over the longer term.
The selected companies will be mentored by health care providers and executives around the state who will provide input into the needs of medical and administrative staff while the companies develop the systems.
David Whitlinger of the NY eHealth collaboration says they want to create products that can be exported to other states, and other countries.
"We have now a network to build applications on top of, and then the ability to export those applications into other states or other countries," Whitlinger said. "So that creates an opportunity for this to be a hotbed for healthcare information technology growth."
Whitlinger says about half of the companies are New York based already, but the other four will be opening offices around the state.
