Sean Murphy, MD, second-year resident in the University of Arizona Department of Emergency Medicine, has been selected from hundreds of applicants to participate in the 2015 Sprint Mobile Health Accelerator, powered by Techstars, the world’s largest startup accelerator.
Techstars accelerator programs connect emerging entrepreneurs with workspace, seed funding, resources and mentorship. According to Techstars, 90 percent of the companies that have participated either are still active or have been acquired.
Dr. Murphy’s company, Triomi, which developed an affordable, mobile electrocardiogram (EKG) system, was one of 10 innovative startup companies chosen by Techstars from across the nation that focuses on mobile health.
“Basically my best friend from college and I have developed an affordable, mobile 12-lead EKG system that works on smartphones and tablets. Our goal is to help busy hospitals, rural America and other countries around the world,” Dr. Murphy said.
Dr. Murphy is spending three-months participating in the 2015 immersive, mentor-driven program, which officially kicked-off March 9 and runs through June 4, at the Sprint Accelerator facility in Kansas City, Mo. There, Dr. Murphy and fellow entrepreneurs hone business strategies, while being mentored by leading technology experts from Sprint, regional health-care leaders and successful entrepreneurs.
Each company receives $120,000 in funding from the accelerator. The program culminates when the 10 companies pitch their products to an audience of more than 1,500 entrepreneurs, business leaders and investors from around the nation.
The Triomi EKG system has 12 leads that role up into a neat package and, when combined with a smartphone and tablet app, allows doctors to take EKG readings (testing for problems with the electrical activity of the heart) on the go — in homecare settings, in transit between care setting, or in global health contexts.
The idea for the mobile EKG came from Mike Battaglia, now Triome’s chief executive officer, and Dr. Murphy, chief technology officer, who were volunteering with Project Medishare at Bernard Mevs Hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
When the hospital’s only EKG stopped working, the pair fixed it with guitar strings and duct tape, saving a patient’s life and the crippling cost she would have faced had she needed to be evacuated to the states for a working EKG.
Battaglia, Dr. Murphy and Sonny Kohli, MD, the physician on call at the time, realized the potential for affordable EKGs.
Countless lives would be saved and the standard of care would improve if developing countries like Haiti could afford and have access to EKGs where they are needed most, Dr. Murphy said.