Selected by Judges and Audience as Winner of MedCity INVEST Pitch Perfect Competition
BeCare Link was recognized as the winner of the recent INVEST Pitch Perfect start-up competition, held by MedCity as part of its INVEST PharmaTech conference on July 27, 2022. Selected by both the judges and the conference attendees as the top choice, BeCare Link’s gamified mobile app stood out as the most promising among the competing healthcare innovators.
Background: Pitch Perfect Contest
The conference was held by MedCity News, one of the leading online news sources for the business of healthcare innovation. Its INVEST Conferences are held multiple times a year and often include a Pitch Perfect Competition to showcase start-ups with innovative approaches to solving some of healthcare’s biggest problems.
A panel of venture capitalists and other investors selected five start-ups to participate in MedCity’s Pitch Perfect competition. The participating companies were challenged to share their vision of how their innovation reinvents pharmaceutical clinical trials. The competition’s format entails a condensed pitch presentation and follow-up question and answer session. Each start-up has five minutes to present to the assembled esteemed judges. In turn, the judges have five minutes to pepper the ‘contestants’ with questions about their strategy and business plans. Finally, both the judges and the virtual conference attendees vote. BeCare Link was selected as the winner by both groups.
BeCare Link’s Solution
In the company’s presentation, Charisse Litchman MD, BeCare Link’s Chief Medical Officer outlined how its app addresses a widespread issue that negatively affects outcomes of patients with chronic neurological disorders. Lack of objective, sensitive measurement of neurologic function makes clinical trials and drug development for neurological patients long, expensive, and often yields low-quality data.
Dr. Litchman highlighted how BeCare Link helps overcome these challenges. Remote, ongoing monitoring which is enhanced by artificial intelligence empowers real time detection of subtle changes in neurological function. The end-result: improved patient outcomes. Yale Medicine and Weill-Cornell studies, as Dr. Charisse detailed, provide empirical proof of the app’s convergent validity with traditional, in-clinic neurological exams.
The case was further made in the presentation and follow-up Q and A. The judges and attendees concurred that the BeCare Link platform offers enormous potential in reinventing pharmaceutical clinical trials.
Charisse Litchman MD, Chief Medical Officer commented on the competition’s outcome. “BeCare Link was thrilled to have been selected by the judges and the audience as the winner of the Pitch Perfect Competition. We believe this is one more testimony of the efficacy of our mobile app in monitoring neurologic function remotely. As a result, patient care and clinical drug trials are improved.”
Participating Healthcare Innovators
In addition to BeCare Link, the other start-ups that participated in the INVEST Pitch Perfect Competition were Climb, EPHealth, HumanFirst, and Vistim Labs Inc. In different ways, these companies seek to help drug companies bring new treatments to market faster. Their proposed solutions range from a platform that streamlines study operations to ensure participant attend study visits (Climb), to a searchable database that helps companies identify the right wearable for remote monitoring (HumanFirst).
INVEST Pitch Perfect Judges
The four Pitch Perfect judges represent venture capital funds focused on digital health investments. Two of the judges are principals at the corporate venture capital arm of top pharmaceutical companies: Merck Global Health Innovation Fund and Sanofi Ventures. Merck and Sanofi are the 7th and 10th largest pharmas, respectively. In addition, two judges represent prominent venture capital funds. One is a partner at Boston Millennia Partners, a private equity financing high growth companies in healthcare and life sciences; while another judge is a partner at Wavemaker Three-Sixty Health, an early-stage venture capital fund focused 100% on healthcare.
For MedCity’s press release, click here.