We Choose to Go to the Moon: More Than 2,000 Health Transformers, Investors and Innovators Head to San Francisco for the 7th Annual StartUp Health Festival

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Dr. Sanjay Gupta and StartUp Health To Announce Details of an Urgent Health Moonshot to Curb Addiction and End Opioid Epidemic

• Free Livestream Access Passes for Virtual Global Participants
• Winners To Be Announced from Accenture's Health Tech Innovation Challenge

StartUp Health, a global organization dedicated to investing in entrepreneurs working to achieve health moonshots, will be back in San Francisco, CA on January 7-8th to host the 7th annual StartUp Health Festival. Featuring more than 100 CEOs from StartUp Health portfolio companies, alongside fireside chats with Dr. Jill Biden, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Kaiser Permanente CEO Bernard Tyson and Novartis Chief Digital Officer Bertrand Bodson, the StartUp Health Festival will bring together more than 2,000 inspiring leaders in health and wellness to focus on solving the world's biggest health challenges.

In addition to progress updates on StartUp Health's 25 year plan to achieve Health Moonshots, and impact stories from over 100 startup founders, this year Dr. Sanjay Gupta and StartUp Health will be announcing details of a critical urgent health moonshot to focus on addiction and the opioid epidemic.

"For more than five decades, President John F. Kennedy's challenge that 'we choose to go to the moon' continues to inspire generations of entrepreneurs with the gift of moonshot thinking and the achievement of seemingly impossible goals. The StartUp Health Festival was created to carry on this legacy by bringing people and organizations together to collaborate on achieving health moonshots," said StartUp Health CEO and Co-founder Steven Krein. "Every day we see the progress being made by Health Transformers around the world. These entrepreneurs are choosing to focus on health innovation, not because it is easy -- but because it is essential."

"We're living in the most exciting time in history for transforming health, but to truly leap forward we first need to dream big. We need to choose to go to the moon again," said Unity Stoakes, President and Co-founder of StartUp Health. "It may take many years, but together we can achieve the impossible and solve the world's biggest health challenges."

The StartUp Health Festival is a three-level experience for participants including a dealmaking salon and networking floor, the StartUp Health Cafe and a main stage featuring moonshot updates, startup spotlights and fireside chats with over 100 leaders including:

• Jill Biden, Ed.D, Co-Chair, Biden Cancer Initiative, Second Lady of the United States from 2009–2017
• Bertrand Bodson, Chief Digital Officer, Novartis
• Eugene Borukhovich, Global Head of Digital Health Incubation & Innovation, Bayer
• William Carson, MD, President & CEO, Otsuka Pharmaceutical Development & Commercialization, Inc.
• Giacomo Chiesi, Head of Global Corporate Development, Chiesi Group
• Karen Drexler, CEO & Co-founder, Sandstone Diagnostics
• Esther Dyson, Executive Founder, Wellville
• Jamey Edwards, CEO & Co-founder, Cloudbreak Health
• Jennifer Esposito, General Manager of Health and Life Sciences, Intel
• Sanjay Gupta, MD, Chief Medical Correspondent, CNN
• Rick Hennessey, CEO, SOLIUS
• Sandra Hernȧndez, MD, CEO, California Health Care Foundation
• David Karow, MD, PhD, Chief of Radiogenomics and Interim CEO, Human Longevity Inc.
• Naheed Kurji, CEO & Founder, Cyclica
• Hesky Kutscher, CEO & Founder, CareDox
• Marco Huesch, MD, Managing Director & Chief Medical Officer, Ping An Global Voyager Fund
• Melissa Manice, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer & Founder, Cohero Health
• Philip Marshall, MD, Chief Product Officer & Co-founder, Conversa
• Jane Metcalfe, CEO & Founder, NEO.LIFE
• Reed Mollins, Chief Strategy Officer & Co-founder, Doctor.com
• Kabir Nath, President & CEO, Otsuka North America Pharmaceuticals
• Brian Neman, CEO, Sanguine Biosciences
• Judith Nowlin, Chief Growth Officer, Babyscripts
• Todd Park, Executive Chairman & Co-founder, Devoted Health
• Lord Prior of Brampton, Chair, NHS England
• Mona Siddiqui, MD, Chief Data Officer, US Department of Health & Human Services
• Josh Stein, CEO & Co-founder, AdhereTech
• Terry Stone, Managing Partner of Health & Life Sciences, Oliver Wyman
• Thomas Tsang, MD, CEO & Co-founder, Valera Health
• Nick Turkal, MD, CEO & President, Advocate Aurora Health
• Bernard Tyson, CEO & Chairman, Kaiser Permanente
• David Weingard, CEO & Founder, Fit4D

StartUp Health's Lead Innovation Partners include Sanofi, Novartis, Chiesi, Ping An & Accenture:
The StartUp Health Festival is an invite-only event made possible by StartUp Health partners and investors including five lead innovation partners all dedicated to supporting our mission to achieve health moonshots.

"We share StartUp Health's belief that technology will enable us to democratize health care," said Heather Bell, SVP and Global Head of Digital and Analytics at Sanofi. "Working together with the world's Health Transformers, we will engage patients in new ways, implement new technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning, and find better ways to get new drugs to market faster – improving the health of people around the world."

Accenture HealthTech Innovation Challenge - Monday, Jan 7, 2019 | 5:00pm - 7:00pm
We're proud to partner with Accenture for the third year to host the Accenture HealthTech Innovation Challenge finals and awards on Monday, January 7th from 5-7pm. The Accenture HealthTech Innovation Challenge connects leading-edge startups with prominent health and life sciences companies to tackle some of the world's greatest health challenges including access, quality and affordability-of-care options. This year, the program had a record number of entries with more than 1,100 applicants.

"After regional rounds in Boston, Dublin, Sydney and Tokyo, we're pleased to bring 10 of the top health startups to the final round of the Accenture HealthTech Innovation Challenge at the StartUp Health Festival," said Stuart Henderson, industry managing director, Accenture Life Sciences. "The program provides a platform that gives our clients the opportunity to have first-hand access to innovative solutions to reshape healthcare and impact their businesses."

Oliver Wyman Closing Reception | Tuesday, January 8, 2019
We're honored to partner with Oliver Wyman to present the first Women in Healthcare Leadership Award, to be presented on Tuesday, January 8, 2019. They will also be sharing insights from their Women in Healthcare Leadership research.

Global Partners Supporting StartUp Health's Mission to Transform Health
The Festival is made possible with support from StartUp Health's world-class partners including:
Chiesi, Novartis, Ping An, Guidewell, Masimo, Otsuka, Advocate Aurora Health, Kaiser Permanente Ventures, Sanofi, Accenture, Bayer, Oliver Wyman, Allied Physicians, California Health Care Foundation, Proskauer Rose LLP, Baxter, Allscripts, BioQuest & Silicon Valley Bank.

StartUp Health has amassed the world's largest portfolio of over 260 digital health companies from six continents and 22 countries and has a global network of over 200,000 investors, customers and partners. StartUp Health is backed by leading health systems, payors and pharmaceutical companies committed to collaborating with entrepreneurs dedicated to transforming health by providing capital, expertise and commercialization opportunities to gain traction and scale.

To apply to attend the Festival, visit http://www.startuphealth.com/festival. If your organization would like to support the 2019 StartUp Health Festival email [email protected]. Entrepreneurs can apply to join StartUp Health's Moonshot Academy at http://www.startuphealth.com. Tune into the free livestream and watch online at http://www.startuphealth.com on Jan. 7-8, 2019 beginning 10:00am PST.

SOURCE StartUp Health

Related Links

http://www.startuphealth.com