Entrepreneurs pitched fledgling health technology companies at the 2017 Health Tech Startup Expo

Feb. 01--A wristwatchlike device and app could monitor blood pressure and blood glucose levels for physicians or insurance companies, or an app could let a home health nurse take a picture of a sore on a patient's foot and get a wound care treatment plan.

Entrepreneurs with a wide range of health technology solutions pitched their fledgling and growing companies Friday at the 2017 Health Tech Startup Expo at Augusta University.

Dr. Gordon Jones is hoping to take advantage of the popularity of wearable health-monitoring devices with what he believes is a superior model that can monitor not only distance and steps taken but also important health status indicators such as blood pressure, heart rate and, before the end of the year, blood glucose levels without an invasive puncture.

He said it will change diabetics' lives.

"They don't have to prick as often," Jones said.

His company, Lifelog Health in North Augusta, is working with a Miami-based manufacturer to sell the devices to consumers and pitch them to physicians' offices and insurance companies as a way to monitor chronically ill patients and help keep them from becoming sicker or hospitalized.

An insurance company with a million members might have 80,000 that are their highest-cost patients, Jones said.

"They would give one of these devices to the patient in order to help start tracking their care," he said. "There's lot of reasons and ways to save money. They all want the data. You can't really manage a population without the data."

Diabetics are prone to get ulcers on their legs and feet, and getting a second ulcer is a good indication a patient is headed toward amputation, said Katherine Piette, the CEO of Corstrata in Savannah, Ga. Her company has an app that a home health nurse can use to take a picture of a patient's sore or ulcer and send it securely to the company and get back wound care advice for that nurse to follow.

The company, which is working with home health companies in eight states, including Georgia and South Carolina, provides support for nurses who might have gotten only a general education in wound care, Piette said.

"What we can do is provide them -- because it is a constantly changing field -- with the latest and best (information) to really close those wounds in record time and save them money at the end," she said. "That's our value proposition to them. We can save them face-to-face visits and on supply cost."

The company can also teach patients self-management to help prevent diabetic ulcers, Piette said.

The event brought together people of different levels and backgrounds, people with just good ideas and others who were "serial entrepreneurs" to talk and potentially meet people who could help them get to the next level, said Grace Belangia, of the Clubhou.se incubator in Augusta, which was a co-sponsor.

"It's like a matchmaking," she said. "You might have a clinician that needs an engineer. They don't even speak the same language practically. But they can come to an event like this and actually be on the same page and solve that patient care problem."

Reach Tom Corwin at (706) 823-3213 or [email protected]

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