Massachusetts eHealth Institute Expands Digital Health Sandbox Network

Nov. 14, 2019
Brigham Digital Innovation Hub (iHub), MIT Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, and TechSpring at Baystate Health join network

The Massachusetts eHealth Institute at MassTech (MeHI) has added three healthcare research and development hubs to its Digital Health Sandbox Network, which connects Massachusetts-based startups to R&D facilities and allows them the opportunity to apply for funding to test their innovations at one of the network’s labs.

The new additions to the roster of Sandbox locations are Brigham Digital Innovation Hub (iHub) in Boston, MIT’s Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (IMES) in Cambridge, and TechSpring at Baystate Health in Springfield, Mass.

Here is some detail about the new members of the sandbox network:

• Brigham Digital Innovation Hub (iHub) – Boston: The iHub’s mission is to drive more patient-centered, efficient and safe care through use, development, evaluation and commercialization of digital health. Having spent six years at the front lines of digital health implementation simplifying and accelerating the adoption of innovative tools across Brigham Health, the iHub has positioned itself as a collaborator of choice for digital health startups. With expertise in identifying, matching, co-developing, and piloting both early stage and market-ready digital solutions, the iHub has created an effective model to drive value to industry partners and to the institution by enabling researchers, clinicians and staff to participate in the process of building and validating digital products in clinical settings. 

• MIT IMES Clinical Research Center (CRC) – Cambridge:  MIT’s IMES CRC supports multidisciplinary research in human health including device and algorithm research from concept to clinical translation. IMES helps to support the complete clinical research lifecycle by providing resources to support protocol design, regulatory compliance, clinical consultation, iterative design, oversight and participant monitoring, in addition to operationalizing clinical research protocols. The CRC spans 11,650 square feet of reconfigurable and flexible testing space that easily conforms to a variety of settings: home, outpatient and/or hospital. Also available is the Clinical Biomedical Pre-research Services, a state-of-the-art biomedical research institute located in Lexington, Mass.

• TechSpring at Baystate Health – Springfield: TechSpring represents Baystate Health’s digital innovation team, specializing in the discovery, evaluation, design, development and deployment of impactful technologies. For 5 years, TechSpring has championed projects building a bridge between digital health innovators and a real health care environment. By linking technology solutions in the marketplace to Baystate Health’s passionate problems and strategic initiatives, TechSpring enables partnering digital health companies to access the assets of Baystate Health, and the WMass healthcare ecosystem, to test, pivot, refine, and launch new solutions.

In addition, MeHI has selected two startups — eMotion Rx of Cambridge and Stability Health of Worcester —to test and validate their products and services at PracticePoint at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, the first sandbox in the network.

MeHI will award an $85,000 grant to PracticePoint, which will allow the two startups to develop and refine their products, gaining access to PracticePoint’s resources, tools, and expertise, with the funds covering membership fees and the purchase of materials for each company’s project.

The first startup, eMotionRx invents, develops and commercializes medical rehabilitation devices for people with impaired mobility. These range from exoskeletons for people with weak or paralyzed limbs to inclusive fitness devices that help a wide range of people with fitness issues, in particular those amplified by disability or aging. The startup, housed at the aging-focused innovation hub AGENCY at the Cambridge Innovation Center, will test their standing desk with integrated sensors and their self-powered exoskeleton, which will use digital technology to determine how and where to harvest energy from a stronger part of the body to strengthen a weaker part of the body to assist people with weak or paralyzed lower limbs enjoy the benefits of walking.

Stability Health’s mission is to improve the lives of people with diabetes. The company’s technology-enabled diabetes care management platform integrates technology, tools, and expert clinical diabetes care knowledge to help individuals and their diabetes care providers better manage their care. Based in Worcester, the company was co-founded by Dr. Dave Harlan, Stability Health’s President and Chief Medical Officer, who also serves as co-director of the University of Massachusetts Medical School/UMass Memorial Health Care’s Diabetes Center of Excellence.

“Through the Sandbox Grant program, we hope to reduce the time, cost, and resources required to test innovative digital health solutions that are ‘Made in Massachusetts,’” said Laurance Stuntz, MeHI Director and a member of the Governor’s Digital Health Council, in a statement. “By expanding the roster of Sandbox locations in the Network, we’re offering both Massachusetts and non-Massachusetts startups expanded access to tools and testbeds that could be a springboard for their growth.”

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