April 2, 2013 -- Healthbox, a leading business accelerator that supports early-stage health care companies, kicked off its second program today in Kendall Square. After completing the inaugural Boston program in November 2012, Healthbox and anchor partner Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (BCBSMA), quickly launched a second program dedicated to supporting innovative start-up companies to respond to continued industry demand for creative solutions to pervasive healthcare challenges.

“Blue Cross is committed to bringing innovation to the state’s health care industry,” said Andrew Dreyfus, President and CEO of BCBSMA. “It is encouraging that we continue to see an uptick in startups and entrepreneurs who are developing innovative technology solutions to improve the healthcare industry while boosting our local economy.”

To better support early-stage companies in gaining traction in the complex healthcare industry, Healthbox is now operating a 16-week program, adding two weeks to both the beginning and end of the accelerator. The ten Boston 2013 companies have already completed a two-week, intensive boot camp designed to help them increase their industry knowledge, improve value propositions and refine business models. “The two-week boot camp gave us new insights and a systems-level perspective on how to take Cellyanyx from an academic project to an actual business," says Ashok Chander, CEO of Cellanyx.

“The boot camp helps our companies think carefully about how to both approach the overall accelerator experience, refining their value proposition to the marketplace,” says Nina Nashif, founder and CEO of Healthbox. “This is an exceptional class of entrepreneurs that truly span the diverse challenges facing the industry, from wellness and prevention through end-of-life wishes. We’re excited to see their continued transformation throughout the remaining 14 weeks.”

The ten companies selected for the next Boston program include:

• 3Derm Systems, offers a low-cost skin monitoring solution allowing patients to take two-and three-dimensional images of concerning lesions at home before being digitally reviewed by a dermatologist.

• Caring in Place is a technology platform to help family caregivers care for their aging loved ones. Through intelligent checklists, family caregivers receive education, drive care coordination, and can purchase integrated products and services.

• Casagem provides a tablet-based data collection and data-processing tools for the homecare industry. These tools will allow underutilized homecare nurses and support workers to complete mandatory on-site homecare forms via tablet, thus improving the precision of data collection and optimizing provider involvement.

• Cellanyx is developing a live-cell biomarker-based diagnostic test to determine oncogenic and metastatic potential for prostate tumors.

• Epion Health delivers a cloud-based, device-agnostic tablet solution that transforms the expensive and inefficient paper-based intake and discharge processes to a far less expensive, more accurate mobile digital solution.

• Hospitalytics is developing analytical software to improve operating room (OR) efficiency by using surgical booking trends to predict future caseloads, enabling OR managers to make proactive decisions regarding case and staffing assignments.

• Lean Wagon provides online group health coaching for employees, with a focus on weight loss and building healthy habits.

• MyProxy is developing a web-based platform that enables patients to create, update, and share healthcare proxies and advance directives for end-of-life care.

• Sensing Strip is a device that integrates thin film sensing electronics with kinesiology tape. This "electronic sensing tape" can be placed anywhere on the patient’s body, where it will sense and wirelessly transmit real-time ambulatory, cardiac, respiratory, or a variety of other data to a smart phone or tablet.

• TheraVid is developing a customizable web-application geared towards improving physical therapy adherence in the home.

Last November, ten startups companies from the inaugural Healthbox Boston program showcased their innovative approaches toward creating better health care outcomes to investors, sponsors, and mentors after completing the rigorous accelerator experience. These promising businesses have already created new jobs, received follow-on investments and made significant traction toward improving outcomes in the healthcare industry.

About Healthbox

Healthbox (www.healthbox.com) stimulates early-stage innovation, enabling entrepreneurial success while creating a collaborative, global ecosystem to catalyze change in the healthcare industry. Our four-month accelerator program finds great companies and passionate healthcare entrepreneurs helping them to understand the healthcare industry and build a sustainable and profitable business. With operations in Chicago, Boston and London, our program has worked with 37 companies across the healthcare industry.

About Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (www.bluecrossma.com) is a community-focused, tax-paying, not-for-profit health plan headquartered in Boston. We are committed to working with others in a spirit of shared responsibility to make quality health care affordable. Consistent with our corporate promise to always put our 2.8 million members first, we are rated among the nation’s best health plans for member satisfaction and quality.