Gecko Health Innovations Invited to The Hive at TEDMED 2013

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - April 11, 2013 - PRLog -- Gecko Health Innovations, Inc., a healthcare technology company, announced this week that it is one of 50 innovative startup companies selected to take part in The Hive at TEDMED 2013 from April 16-19. The Hive is TEDMED’s newest platform, debuting at this year's event in association with The StartUp Health Network and major partners such as Johnson & Johnson, Target, Kaiser Permanente, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Located in the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, The Hive will bring together a diverse community of independent start-ups, incubators/accelerators, academically-led programs and labs run by Fortune 500 companies, and inspiring entrepreneurs in health and medicine to explore transformative innovations.

GeckoCap is a novel platform that was designed and created by a team at MIT over one year ago. The team combined mobile technology and rewards systems to address the $50 billion problem of adherence for inhaled medications. GeckoCap connects the inhalers to smartphones and allows different users to visualize streams of data and to make sense of them. The system treats children as responsible patients: by developing a unique user experience, it encourages self-management through goals and rewards. For parents, GeckoCap offers better controls and peace of mind through a system that not only creates alerts and notifications on their mobile devices, but also helps them to better communicate with their children and doctors in order to reinforce adherence.

“For a long time, chronic diseases among children did not get the attention they deserved in terms of engaging technologies that enable better self-management or data analysis. This is partly due to the misconception that the pediatric market is too small”, said Gecko Health Innovations CEO and founder Yechiel Engelhard. “We have recently begun to see the emergence of solutions that address these problems. With GeckoCap, we are creating rewards mechanisms that keep patients and their families involved and invested in their own health.”

The use of technology to monitor asthma and improve outcomes has seen an uptake in recent months. According to an article on Gigaom, Asthmapolis raised $5 million for their sensor technology. Also, AT&T Labs is working on a wireless asthma sensor that scans the air for volatile organic compounds that may exacerbate asthma symptoms, and then alerts patients via smartphones and other devices. Finally, a device from Siemens aims to warn patients about impending attacks by measuring nitric oxide in a patient’s breath, which can be an early sign of airway inflammation.

“TEDMED is a fantastic event, and being one of only a few fortunate startups selected to take part in The Hive is a huge opportunity for us to help shape and spread GeckoCap’s vision. We are looking forward to being part of the Health 3.0 revolution and improving the way we engage with patients and their families”, said Mark Maalouf, CTO and founder.

GeckoCap demonstrated rapid progress in its first year of operations by taking part in the Healthbox accelerator in Cambridge, MA (sponsored in part by Blue Cross Blue Shield MA), building two generations of the product, and getting early validation from partners. Last January, the team was selected by American Airlines and StartUp America to present at CES 2013. It was also selected as one of the best new gadgets by Market Watch of the WSJ and by the Huffington Post, and was deemed a “Must-Have For Parents Of Kids With Asthma (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/16/geckocap-accessory-inhalers-parents-kids-asthma_n_2487212.html?1358364039)”. GeckoCap is currently looking for partners and investors who wish to improve healthcare through disruptive technologies which will improve the lives of children and their families.

ABOUT ASTHMA
Asthma is the most common chronic disease and one of the leading causes of hospitalization for American children. One in seven, or nearly ten million, children are affected by the disease. Asthma is also a pressing public health issue, with costs exceeding $50 billion per year in the U.S. alone.

Inhaled maintenance medications (corticosteroids) can effectively control asthma symptoms. However, non-adherence to treatment can result in unnecessary exacerbations, repeated symptoms, and even a visit to the emergency department. 50% of all asthma costs could be prevented if children simply adhered to their prescription.

ABOUT GECKO HEALTH INNOVATIONS, INC.
Gecko Health Innovations, Inc. is a technology healthcare startup founded by parents, engineers, and physicians from MIT. It develops products that simplify medication adherence and that improve the quality of life of those suffering from chronic conditions. The first such product, GeckoCap, is built on proprietary, patent pending technologies. GeckoCap is a platform that leverages the capabilities of mobile technology, data analytics, social reinforcement, and gamification to improve asthma medication adherence.

ABOUT TEDMED
TEDMED (http://www.tedmed.com/) is a multi-disciplinary community of innovators and leaders who share a common determination to create a better future in health and medicine. 1,800 leading thinkers and doers from across society form the delegation at our annual gathering. TEDMED is a place where the person sitting next to you is as important as the speaker on stage.

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