NEW YORK (AUGUST 21, 2023) – Firefly Innovations, the premier entrepreneurship platform of the City University of New York Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy (“CUNY SPH”), recently announced the successful completion of the fourth annual CUNY Public Health Innovation Accelerator (the “Accelerator”).
The KPMG-sponsored Accelerator, which provides pro-bono programmatic and consulting support services valued at over $20,000 to each participating venture, is a signature program of Firefly Innovations and the most comprehensive program of its kind in the U.S. helping entrepreneurs scale early-stage prototypes into sustainable businesses with significant public health impact.
The eight-week Accelerator operated during June and July and concluded with a pitch competition that was open to the public and provided participating ventures an opportunity to present their innovative public health solutions to a record audience of over 100 prospective partners, investors, customers, and stakeholders.
“It's so motivating to see this commitment to tackling the challenges around health equity in this moment when we know that the historical and systemic impacts of inequity continue to be a threat to the goals and aspirations that we seek as a society,” said KPMG Managing Director Meghan Hendery. “At KPMG, we are equally focused on meeting the challenge of this moment and we believe deeply that innovation and passion are the keys to tackling the significant challenges ahead.”
In addition to announcing the winners of the pitch competition, all eight ventures participating in the Accelerator were also recognized by Firefly Innovations for their significant community impact and ongoing leadership and contributions in the field of public health.
“It’s clear that our founder Dr. Terry Huang’s inspiring vision of transforming the public health sector through entrepreneurship is coming to life with incredible and growing momentum,” said Firefly Innovations Managing Director W. Michael Short. “With record-setting demand for our program, and the cascading crisis of public health challenges that we face nationally and globally, planning is currently underway to scale our program into what will be the largest public health venture accelerator of its kind in the world.”
2023 Pitch Competition Winners:
First Place Venture: Oatmeal Health
Second Place Venture: Tiny Docs
Third Place Venture: Sanitas Health
Watch 2023 Showcase:
2023 Accelerator Participants:
Oatmeal Health is an AI-enabled Cancer Screening as a Service for under-represented patients of FQHCs and Health Plans.
"Winning the pitch competition showcase and participating in the CUNY Public Health Innovation Accelerator was a great experience. The accelerator is very different from many of the other programs that I have been a part of in the past. The goal of Firefly Innovations and CUNY SPH is not just education, but providing true connections to corporate partners, philanthropist groups, health plans, healthcare providers, and traditional venture capital all with one common goal to help support and accelerate public health initiatives like the tech-enabled cancer screenings that Oatmeal Health provides to underserved patient populations.”
Tiny Docs supports healthcare partners to improve kids’ health outcomes and save providers time through its educational and entertaining animated content.
"The accelerator provided the mentorship, education, and fellowship we needed to take our business to the next level. Beyond that, it helped me to become a better entrepreneur and leader. I am excited about continuing the partnership with Firefly Innovations and the great things that we will accomplish together to advance public health in the future."
Sanitas Health is a psychology-based language analysis platform for understanding human emotions, personalities, motivations, and psychology from everyday language.
“The CUNY accelerator was tremendously helpful. The mentors and the focus on Public Health and policies around health equity completely aligned with the mission of Sanitas. Sanitas is a social enterprise with a vision of Health Equity for All. The Firefly/CUNY accelerator was more than the typical 8-12 weeks of programming culminating with a demo day. The Firefly/CUNY programming was unique and led by healthcare professionals with a shared moral imagination. There was a demo day at the conclusion and Sanitas was one of the three winners of the demo day competition. We've been riding high ever since we started the program. While in the program we closed several large customers and started one new paid pilot. We can't say enough about how much we gained from Firefly/CUNY.”
Sanarai is an online platform that connects the Latinx community to mental health professionals in Latin America to provide culturally sensitive, Spanish-language emotional support at accessible prices.
“During the accelerator, we've benefited from its healthcare-specific focus, receiving tailored support and industry-specific expertise to effectively address our challenges. The program's strong connections in the NYC ecosystem have also provided valuable opportunities for potential collaborations and partnerships within the local healthcare community, enhancing our visibility and access to key stakeholders in the region.”
RE-Assist is a digital platform that empowers more efficient transfer of care admission.
“Through the CUNY accelerator we have been able to analyze healthcare and the future thereof from a public health standpoint. We have taken a closer look at our approach and how we can make care coordination easily and less burdensome on patients and hospitals. RE-Assist is excited to work with CUNY Public Health Accelerator and Firefly on a long term basis to help improve the transfer of care in healthcare. This partnership will help give us the tools and resources necessary to create a process that will be scalable across the continuum of care. Since graduating from the accelerator we have partnered with Harvard blackbox Lab to support the development and validation of the RE-Assist platform through research. We are looking for innovative hospitals who would like to pilot with us to simplify their transfer of care model and comply with rules from CMS. During the pilot of the RE-Assist digital platform, the blackbox Lab will study the features of the SaaS tool to understand its effectiveness and impact on equity in transfer of care from hospital to post-acute care. We believe with the help and support from CUNY and Harvard we can make a major impact on the referral management marketplace.”
Medsembly is an employee engagement, learning, and wellness tool that helps healthcare companies stay connected to their team, improve company culture, and work performance, while offering career support and guidance to current and future healthcare workers.
“The Firefly/CUNY SPH Accelerator was one of the most rewarding experiences in my startup journey. I enjoyed the interactive expert-led discussions that helped us learn key aspects of building a public-health mission driven company. One of my favorite parts about the accelerator was the mentor groups. We were paired with a group of mentors and met with them weekly. I appreciate the constructive feedback, insights, and most of all, the endless motivation my mentors provided. Firefly/CUNY SPH is dedicated to nurturing the growth of early-stage companies and I look forward to continuing our work together and having the support of such tremendous organizations.”
Human Edge is an enterprise tech company focusing on optimizing the health and wellbeing of the global workforce to help them achieve peak performance.
“Human Edge was delighted to participate in this CUNY SPH Accelerator program, operated by Firefly Innovations. The exposure to the US public health environment, and opportunity to start building a network within this stakeholder community, will be of tremendous value in the years to come.”
Speetar Health is a telehealth platform that provides accessible, affordable quality healthcare in adverse conditions and creates centralized health data to protect increasingly mobile populations.
“I had the good fortune of meeting the accelerator’s managing director W. Michael Short at a summit hosted by MIT and he encouraged us to apply. It was clear right from the start that I made the right decision. It was an incredibly rewarding experience and we look forward to building on our collaboration in the future.”