In an effort to close health disparities brought to light and exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced this week that it has banded together with 15 digital health startups in the 2022 PandemicX Accelerator.
“PandemicX will help give us interoperable tools that identify health inequities and facilitate interventions that prevent such inequities from further turning into healthcare disparities,” Micky Tripathi, U.S. National Coordinator for Health IT, said.
This IT cohort will utilize digital tools and public data to tackle these societal disparities, which include everything from discrimination, to barriers such as lack of insurance, income, occupation, housing and more. Many of these disparities have left various racial and ethnic minority groups at more risk of contracting and dying from COVID-19. The partners in this initiative will thus focus on uniting government, business, IT and public health to develop innovative, data-driven solutions for health challenges.
Over a four month period, the partners will undergo a curriculum, mentorship and exhibitions to inevitably tackle areas such as health equity by design, national public health solutions, behavioral, mental, and violence prevention, socioeconomic outcome indicators and community resilience.
“I am excited for the PandemicX Accelerator cohort to work with us to collectively address health equity barriers and other disparities exacerbated by COVID-19 by using data and innovation,” Admiral Rachel Levine, M.D., Assistant Secretary for Health, said. “We are at our best when all segments of society work together; we must work collaboratively to achieve the best solutions.”
The 15 startups include:
- Carium
- CBOH
- Culture Care Collective
- EatWell Meal Kits
- Eupnoos Lt.
- Ferrum Health
- HealthOpX
- HeyRenee
- Juli
- ManagingLife
- OMNY Health
- Opeeka
- Patientory, Inc.
- UnMute
- Welfie