Medplum

--- slug: yc-s23-healthcare title: Congrats YC S23 Healthcare authors: reshma --- # Congrats to YC S23 Healthcare Companies As a long time YC community member (10+ years) and former [Visiting Group Partner](https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/welcome-s21-visiting-group-partners), I'm always excited by the great companies that release each Demo Day. For me, it's like the Superbowl 🏈. <!-- truncate --> > Read our coverage on [YC S23 Open Source Meetup](/blog/2023-08-17-yc-oss-faq.md) and [Medplum's YC Launch](/blog/2022-08-02-medplum-in-yc.md) YC Alumni Demo Day was this Saturday September 2, and I thought the presentations were particularly good. Here's some exciting nuggets we saw in the presentations in the _Healthcare and Life Sciences_ category. - [Mantle Bio](https://www.mantlebio.com/) - **Snowflake for Biotech** - enormous data sets, complex algorithms, and a workforce filled with PhDs who have a lot of domain expertise but little exposure to data engineering make this a fertile area. Great to see an [MIT team](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/mantlebio) here as well. - [Flex](https://withflex.com/) - **Stripe for HSA/FSA** - accepting payments period in healthcare and HSA/FSA in particular requires so many special agreements and there is a ton of float out there. I could see specialized medical services being built around these balances. A team with strong infra chops and [big tech](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/mantlebio) background is great to see here too. - [Decoda](https://decoda.health/) - **AI medical claims creation**. Just Google CPT 99205 (outpatient evaluation and management of new patient) documentation and you'll see why it would be great to have AI do this. - [Shasta Health](https://www.shasta.health/) - **AI Platform for physical therapists**. Patients need PT before and after surgery and treatment in so many cases for health reasons _and for payers_. Having an AI guided workflow here seems so useful. - [Ohmic Biosiciences](https://ohmicbiosciences.com/) - **Genetically engineering plants for alternative to roundup**. Clear win to getting this to work! A team out of UCB, and reading their [launch](https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/J5Y-ohmic-biosciences-genetically-engineering-disease-resistant-plants) brought to mind the movie [Interstellar](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0816692/). - [Olio Labs](https://oliolabs.co/) - **Therapeutics for tough diseases**. There's a lot of great properties of targeting tough diseases. Details are long, but [a Startup and FDA article](https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/the-pre-product-startup-and-the-fda) may be of interest. - [Flair health](https://www.flairhealth.com) - **Shopify for holistic primary care**. It's just a matter of time before there is a [huge direct-to-consumer health company](https://a16z.com/2023/04/20/hey-tech-its-time-to-build-in-healthcare/) the likes of the biggest companies in America, that's the opportunity. - [Feanix Biotech](https://www.feanixbio.com/) - **genetic testing for animal (cow) breeding**. Clear win getting this to work as well! [Launch](https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/JFK-feanix-bio-gen-ai-genetics-for-artificial-insemination) highlights a team at the intersection of big tech and agriculture. - [Health Harbor](https://healthharbor.co/) - **Gen AI to "call insurance" for clinics**. The phone, like fax, is a major channel for information exchange. I could see one angle where they payers also put a bot on the other side of the line. - [Obento Health](https://www.obentohealth.com) - **Patient engagement for private practice**. Patient engagement at the right level is a perennial challenge at all levels. If it's cracked it is a big deal. - [Andromeda Surgical](http://www.andromedasurgical.com) - **autonomous surgical robots**. Love the ambition and it would be a breakthrough as trained surgeons are so scarce. Clearly a team savvy about [Startups and the FDA](https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/the-pre-product-startup-and-the-fda). - [Medisearch](https://medisearch.io) - **trustworthy medical search**. Healthcare is all about trust! Trust is the difference between gold and garbage in this industry. A trusted search engine has immense obvious value. A very [technical team](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/medisearch) working on this. - [Sohar Health](https://www.soharhealth.com) - **AI driven clearinghouse for behavioral health**. Access to behavioral health is a huge issue at the societal level. Godspeed. - [Sensible Biotech](https://sensible.bio) - **mRNA synthesis for therapeutics and vaccines**. We all know how powerful mRNA is. Exciting. Related: [FDA Orientation for Startups](https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/fda-orientation-for-early-stage-startups/). - [Wattson Health](https://www.wattsonhealth.com) - **Software for managing Rx** and automate manual workflow. Healthcare + automation, love it. The quality monitoring benefit seems like a big deal as well. [Demo gif](https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/JDW-wattson-health-pharmacy-automation-to-increase-rx-throughput-accuracy) tells a good story to those (like us at Medplum) in the industry. - [Healthtech 1](https://www.healthtech1.uk/) - **Automating repetitive healthcare processes**. After fighting our way through interop and "standard" interfaces, we at Medplum know how powerful and compelling RPA can be for practitioners. This is a case in point in solving a burning pain point for practitioners. - [Synaptic](https://synaptiq.co/) - **AI powered training for doctors** Well organized, high quality medical knowledge is a sleeper category. [UpToDate](https://www.uptodate.com/) is the Craigslist of this category and am excited about the future. Also cool to see an [interdisciplinary MD + big tech team](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/synaptiq) at work on this. - [Simbie](http://www.simbiehealth.com) - **AI powered practice in a box** for NPs in women's health. I could see myself as a customer of one of their customers. - [Cleancard](https://www.cleancard.bio) - **cancer screening as easy as pregnancy test**. Clearly valuable and loved their [launch](https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/JEj-cleancard-making-cancer-screening-as-easy-as-a-pregnancy-test). We at Medplum serve several at-home test providers as customers and at home diagnostics resonate a ton with patients. Related: [How to start a Biotech on a budget](https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/how-to-start-a-biotech-company-on-a-budget), - [Nanograb](https://nanograb.com) - **AI-generated binders** for targeted drug delivery. Nothing close to an expert in this space, but am enthusiastic about the descriptive name of this company, and like that they have a neat domain. 70% of drug trials fail because the "grab" doesn't work (poor targeting). - [MICSI](https://www.micsi.co/) - **Higher resolution MRI with faster scan times**. MRI (and ultrasound) are really valuable tools, and see many wonderful applications of this technology. MICSI stands for microstructure imaging, and I could see this technology being able to [read the mind](https://arxiv.org/abs/2307.11078). - [Certainly Health](https://www.certainlyhealth.com) - **Book doctors and avoid surprise bills**. How much (and when) are two frequent unknowns in healthcare. Great to see a technocratic approach here from a [technical team](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/certainly-health). - [Stellar Sleep](https://stellarsleep.com/) - **clinic for chronic insomnia**. Great use case for a specialized provider, as insomnia really affects quality of life and the standard advice from GP is to reduce coffee intake, neglecting frequent related issues like anxiety, hormonal issues and more. - [Empirical Health](https://empirical.health) - **proactive primary care, scaled with AI**. I love the name and the premise. Also, so exciting to see a [team](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/empirical-health) with a deep understanding of precision,recall and value based care in this space. - [Eden Care](https://www.edencaremedical.com/) - **Digital health insurance for employers in Africa**. Not an expert, but we see a good amount of [Medplum community](https://discord.gg/medplum) activity in Africa, and am bullish about the opportunity in region. A huge congrats to YC S23 on your Demo Day!