Life sciences ruled at this year's Wharton Business Plan Competition, held April 25. RightCare Solutions won first place and will receive the $30,000 grand prize. Competing against seven other finalists, RightCare created D2S2, a discharge planning and readmission decision support system. The evidence-based tool was developed by Dr. Kathy Bowles, Professor of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania, and the business plan was written by Eric Heil, who graduates from the Executive Wharton MBA program this year.
"It was the topic of my senior thesis as an undergrad at Penn engineering in 2005. Kathy and I worked on it then, and she continued her research in the field and perfected the algorithms," says Heil. "We stayed in touch over the years, and given some of the changes in the reimbursement and regulatory landscape, we decided to create the tool to commercialize her research."
RightCare addresses a $30 billion problem in the United States: preventing readmission. Working with hospitals, insurers, and homecare agencies to identify patients at high risk for readmission, the tool was developed from a study led by Dr. Bowles using referral decisions made by discharge planning experts for 355 hospitalized older adults.
Used at the beginning of a hospital stay, D2S2 can help care coordinators identify high-risk patients quickly, and provide them enough time to coordinate the right care for high-need patients post-discharge to facilities such as home-care, skilled nursing, rehab, or a nursing home. Beta testing is now underway at three hospital systems, according to Heil, and D2S2 is scheduled for national implementation this summer.
Second prize at the Business Plan Competition went to
1DocWay, an online doctor’s office connecting hospitals with underserved patient populations, including the rural, elderly and disabled, via a secure video chat platform. Samir Malik, who graduates from Wharton next year, was the lead on the business plan development team.
In third place was Calcula which is developing urological medical devices for the removal of kidney stones without anesthesia. The People's Choice Award winner was ChondroPro, which is developing therapeutic technology to treat osteoarthritis. By the way, Heil says the health care focus of the finalists and winners was happenstance.
Previous winners of the Wharton Business Plan Competition include Warby-Parker and Stylitics.
Source: Eric Heil, RightCare
Writer: Sue Spolan