ABOUT SLING HEALTH

OUR MISSION

Sling Health is a student-run, non-profit organization unifying the talents and interests of diverse groups of students, clinicians, and entrepreneurs to develop innovative medtech solutions aimed at improving patient health and care delivery. Medical students at Washington University in St. Louis founded Sling Health (formerly IDEA Labs) in 2013 to address unsolved clinical problems encountered in their hospital system. Our LA chapter adapts this successful development model to tackle clinical challenges faced within the Greater Los Angeles healthcare landscape.


Our main objectives are:

  • To make medical entrepreneurship attainable for students and physicians
  • To organize teams of students/advisors from the schools of medicine, business, engineering, and arts & sciences to develop novel devices/software addressing unmet clinical needs

OUR EXPERIENTIAL PLATFORM

Our organization cultivates and supports student-led teams through a 9-month experiential program. We facilitate clinical utility assessments, prototype creation, and business development/commercialization strategies. Teams also receive opportunities to pitch their solutions at numerous competitions and events, including the annual Sling Health National Demo Day.


Sling Health teams receive resources, support, and mentorship throughout the process. Resources include:

  • Seed funding
  • Lab, office, and workshop space
  • Prototyping tools and equipment
  • Legal services including patent and incorporation support
  • Mentorship from clinicians, industry experts, and local entrepreneurs via design reviews

Join us in making the Sling Health LA mission a success! We welcome you to participate in our program and/or submit a clinical problem you think needs to be addressed.

LEADERSHIP

Justin Lee
Co-President

PhD Candidate, Bioengineering, Caltech
MD Candidate DGSOM @ UCLA
BA, Johns Hopkins University

Alexander Chen
Co-President

MD Candidate DGSOM @ UCLA
BS, Yale University

Sean Pianka
Vice President

PhD Candidate, Neuroscience, UCLA
MD Candidate DGSOM @ UCLA
BA, Pomona College

Abhishek Venkataramana
Co-Managing Director

MD Candidate DGSOM @ UCLA
BS, Stanford University

Kevin Sung
Co-Managing Director

MD Candidate DGSOM @ UCLA
MS, UCLA
BS, UCLA

Sling Health LA is a proud member of the UCLA Health Innovation Community

Learn More Here

CURRENT PROJECTS

Pediatrics Medhome Journal

The Medhome program is designed to provide care for children with complex clinical needs. The program is comprised of a diverse patient population with a wide range of diagnoses. These patients often need care from multiple specialties at Reagan and Medhome physicians act as primary care providers who coordinate care from the necessary specialites. Some families were missing appointments and did not understand key facets of their care plan due to the many required specialist visits. The team developed a low-cost journal specific to the Medhome population that helps families organize information and communicate with various physicians. The journal applies illustrations and interactive figures to encourage use and overcome potential language barriers.

HealthCrate

HealthCrate aims to provide a nutritional intervention for chronically ill patients. The program combines recipe customization for nutritional needs as well as grocery delivery; a combination of features targeted towards customers with low healthcare literacy, with low SES, or who live in food deserts. The team is currently working to partner with local non-profits, e.g. Project Angel Food, to provide services to customers who no longer qualify for fully prepared meals, but who still need a way to cook for themselves.

Atria Connect

Atria Connect is a start-up nonprofit organization aimed in reshaping the way that doctors spend their time volunteering abroad. The organization aims to provide personalized Point-of-Care Medicine and to equip developing area with novel, low-cost medical technologies as well as teach physicians in developing areas so they are able to pass down medical expertise to future generations. Part of how Atria plans to do so is sending small teams of physicians and accompanying medical students on regular biweekly intervals to maximize impact in the target communities. The ultimate goal is to adequately train medical professionals abroad so that they are able to use medical technologies to treat patients and helplocal satellite communities receive quality medical care.

SUCCESS STORIES

Epharmix

Epharmix™ provides disease-specific communication tools, improving outcomes for patients and saving providers time. Lack of patient-physician engagement decreases the effectiveness of medical interventions. Epharmix products, designed by leading physicians and clinically validated, are toll-free SMS and phone-based “interventions,” which physicians and nurses can prescribe. Epharmix operates in San Francisco (sales & research) and St. Louis (sales, research, & software development). They have raised over $1.1M.

Mindset

Mindset™, an app by DataDog Health™, tackles mental health therapy access by providing anxiety interventions at moments of high stress. Mindset monitors autonomic signals through wearable technology and prompts the patient to pursue coping techniques while experiencing stress, while simultaneously recording data for review with physicians. DataDog received over $275,000 in investment and is starting clinical validation work in preparation for launch later this year.

Applied Particle Technology

Applied Particle Technology™ is improving air filtration in hospitals. Their technology will not only work substantially better than current HEPA filtration technologies, it will also cost significantly less in the long term. The filtration technology will work to filter both particulate and volatile compounds, ensuring perfectly clean air. Applied Particle Technologies has developed major corporate partnerships and recently won an Arch Grants Award and 1st place in the WUSTL Skandalaris Cup.

Gene-oscopy

Gene-oscopy™ is developing a next generation colorectal cancer screening method that evaluates the mRNA in stool samples, getting rid of the need for colonoscopy in healthy patients. Patients provide a fecal sample to the doctor, the mRNA in the stool is extracted, and the expression profile of this sample determines if the patient requires further care.

CystoView

CystoView™ transforms the traditional cystoscope into a digital and wireless device. Current bedside cystoscopy depends on a scope that must be looked through directly by the operator, making it uncomfortable to navigate. Other physicians are unable to see the live image, and images cannot be accessed for later review or patient education. CystoView has designed a wireless camera that reconstructs, records, and displays images on a live monitor.

Eureka

Eureka™ makes patent search easier, streamlining the patenting process. Proper positioning of an initial patent can create long-term savings, both in legal fees and time. Eureka’s intuitive, graphical representation of previous and existing patent literature allows users to simply enter the desired search terms and see all related and existing patents. This enables users to see existing technologies and the areas of opportunity for new patents, providing a quicker path to refining a given product or process.