The business magazine Fast Company is out with its picks for the “next big things in tech.” Of 65 companies making the overall list for 2021, the project’s inaugural year, 10 of the best are in healthcare.
Honorees were selected by a group of 14 writers and editors who work for the outlet. Not all the spotlighted products and services are commercially available, the magazine notes, but “they’re real, and … their potential for the future is what excited us the most as we assessed candidates for this list.”
Here are Fast Company’s choices for the top 10 healthcare-specific innovators, along with the outlet’s summary descriptions of each one’s noteworthy offerings:
Biospectal. Using the camera on a smartphone, Biospectal’s OptiBP app can record a user’s blood pressure through a fingertip in just 20 seconds.
Brightseed. The Forager platform leverages large-scale data processing and machine learning to get a deeper understanding of the compounds within plants to identify potential medical applications.
Caption Health. This company’s ultrasound uses AI to guide healthcare providers through the imaging process and offer preliminary interpretations of scans.
ClosedLoop AI. This company’s technology predicts health outcomes for patients—whether they’re currently in the hospital or have been discharged—so doctors can make care plans to prevent readmission.
Microsoft and Adaptive Biotech. The tech giant teamed up with Adaptive Biotech to create ImmuneCODE, an open-source database of immune responses to COVID-19, which they used to develop an affordable T cell test to detect past infection.
Outset Medical. This company’s compact Tablo dialysis machine, which combines water purification and dialysate production (which clears impurities out of the blood), can be used in both treatment centers and at home, increasing access for patients with kidney disease who can’t get to a dialysis center.
Sherlock Biosciences. Sherlock’s CRISPR-based COVID test—the first FDA-authorized use of the gene-editing tech—is sensitive and can deliver results in roughly one hour.
Synchron. This company created a minimally invasive interface that uses the brain’s electrical pulses to send information to a computer, allowing people with limited mobility to type and navigate the web.
Tivic Health. Tivic’s ClearUp handheld device reduces sinus pain, pressure and congestion by stimulating the trigeminal nerve, which reports pain and pressure in the face to the brain.
TruTag. Makes edible micro barcodes that can be printed on drugs to prevent fake medicines from making their way into the supply chain. Pills can be scanned by a smartphone app to verify that they’re authentic.
The magazine also recognizes five companies with honorable mentions: Canary Medical, MD Ally, Nuvo, Seed Health and TMRW.
Dave P. has worked in journalism, marketing and public relations for more than 30 years, frequently concentrating on hospitals, healthcare technology and Catholic communications. He has also specialized in fundraising communications, ghostwriting for CEOs of local, national and global charities, nonprofits and foundations.