29 Top Chicago Healthcare Startups You Should Know

Access to healthcare and the quality of care is a hot topic in Washington these days, but key players in the tech space have been working on these issues for decades. Chicago is a nerve center for health tech and we’ve rounded up some startups and tech companies working on everything from helping hospitals reduce infections to making office dwellers healthier while sitting at their desks.

Founded: 1989

Jellyvision is a healthtech company that offers software and tech for employee benefits management. Its platform’s offerings include benefits counseling, personalized enrollment support, engagement tools and company-specific custom options. Jellyvision aims to demystify the complicated and frustrating landscape of benefits for employees, with the goal of supporting them in accessing all the benefits they’re entitled to.  

Founded: 2020

Avaneer Health offers a decentralized healthcare ecosystem, the Avaneer Ecosystem, that functions as a peer-to-peer network for healthcare organizations. Participants use the network to collaborate across organizations and share real-time data, with the aim of streamlining the administrative side of healthcare. The network is used by prominent organizations including Aetna, CVS Health and Cleveland Clinic.  

Founded: 2016

Carrot Fertility has filled one of the toughest gaps in the healthcare space: fertility. Providing diverse benefits for “family-forming journeys” with or without an infertility diagnosis, the company’s care platform is sold as an add-on to employee benefits packages. Carrot Fertility facilitates services including egg, sperm and embryo freezing, IVF, gestational surrogacy and pregnancy and postpartum care.

Founded: 1987

PatientPoint makes healthtech for doctor’s offices and hospitals, providing health education and doctor-patient communication that’s designed to improve outcomes and patient satisfaction. It works with more than 140,000 medical providers in nearly 40,000 offices. PatientPoint says its products are behind measurable positive healthcare outcomes, such as increases in proactive health services in the form of mammograms and colon cancer screenings.  

Founded: 2010 

Q-Centrix helps health organizations unlock the potential of clinical data with its Enterprise Clinical Data Management platform. The company boasts a community of over 1,000 members, leveraging expert insights to organize and distribute clinical data across various departments. Instead of investing time and resources in training staff, healthcare teams can rely on the platform to filter immense amounts of clinical data. Q-Centrix enables companies to tailor its flexible technology to meet the needs of professionals in cardiology, oncology, and other areas. 

Founded: 2014

PreparedHealth creates software that makes it easier to deliver home care. Prepared’s platform enables smooth facility-to-home transitions, stronger communication, real-time updates and services ranging from meal delivery to home-based caregivers.

Founded: 2007

Evive creates customized tools to help users stay on top of their health needs. The technology analyzes and translates data points into suggestions like an alert for a user with seasonal allergies during a high pollen streak, or a recommendation to schedule an annual screening. Evive is a big-data-meets-behavior solution, giving people the ability to make better preventative health decisions that ultimately result in millions of dollars in cost savings.

Founded: 2001

GoHealth’s platform is a beacon in the often  confusing and complicated world of health insurance. Not just for consumers, the company offers solutions for every player in the industry, including carriers and insurance agents. GoHealth has helped over 2 million users find the right coverage while providing the information and insight needed to fully understand their plans.

Founded: 2012

Higi is a health station that lets users track their health. Going beyond steps and heart rate, the Higi informs on a variety of health factors like Body Mass Index, pulse, weight, blood pressure and body fat percentages. Higi station checks paint a full portrait of a user’s health, and its mobile app lets them monitor progress from anywhere at anytime. Higi also has a built-in community where users can find friends to follow and groups to join for that extra bit of support.

Founded: 1994 

Intelligent Medical Objects has developed a slate of IT solutions to ensure healthcare organizations keep their electronic health records up to date. The company also provides tools to establish terminology, enabling providers to operate with efficiency and confidence. The healthcare industry can seem disorganized at times, so Intelligent Medical Objects is simplifying operations. Providers can now access patient data, enrich their surgical dictionaries, and keep track of billing records. By harnessing the capabilities of technology, Intelligent Medical Objects is empowering providers to deliver a more satisfying patient experience. 

Founded: 2012

Procured Health is the creator of a software suite that helps healthcare providers spend wisely on medical supplies, devices and drugs. (Update: Procured Health is now Lumere.) The platform’s three solutions, IntelligencePRO, EvaluationPRO and PipelinePRO, mine data and use clinical evidence to rid providers of wasteful spending, ultimately lowering costs for patients and improving overall care.

Founded: 2013

Pareto Intelligence is a data and analytics company providing insights that help healthcare organizations manage risk, revenue and cost. The company enables healthcare providers, systems and plans to identify risks and inefficiencies, improving their long-term financial performance. To date, Pareto has already analyzed over 100 billion dollars in medical costs and claims. 

Founded: 2013

PhysIQ monitors the vitals of each patient with biosensor technology to provide a more complete patient profile. With the collected data, providers can understand individual patterns and know when someone is in a healthy state. Instead of reacting to issues, providers can now take a more preventative approach to healthcare. PhysIQ’s data enables professionals to spot when someone’s health is out of sync. They can then notify the patient and determine if any next steps are needed.

Founded: 2015

Tempus is creating the largest library of clinical and molecular data in the world. The goal is to ultimately bring cancer treatment into the 21st century with data-driven insights physicians can use to make more effective and personalized treatment decisions. Tempus is working to make each patient experience better than the last and have partnered with a swath of prominent institutions like Mayo Clinic, Northwestern Medicine and Rush University Medical Center.

Founded: 2015

Upfront Health is creating a more efficient system to handle large volumes of in-office patient visits. Upfront’s program evaluates each visit at a practice, analyzing schedules and logistics to determine the best actions for avoiding wasted or unnecessary appointments, incomplete tests and no-shows.

Founded: 1999

Veritas Health produces original peer-reviewed articles written by physicians to boost patient education on chronic pain and musculoskeletal conditions. With over six million monthly patient visits, Veritas has four websites featuring educational content covering health topics relating to sports, osteoporosis, the spine and arthritis.

VillageMD is creating a new clinical model for primary care physicians. The model improves both patient care and economic performance of practices through data analytics, support services and physician-based care coordination. The VillageMD model works in a local, personalized setting and is unique to each practice, customized to the physicians and patients within the market. 

Founded: 2010

Rally Health provides patients with a software platform for managing their personal health goals and insurance benefits. By offering an option for individuals to explore fact-checked health recommendations tailored to their particular needs, Rally Health helps users both stay on top of their health and treatments while sticking with their budgets.

Founded: 2013

Opternative uses an online vision test and a subsequent review by an optometrist to provide quick, office-free vision prescriptions. The service lets users manage their vision prescription needs from home, which is especially convenient when patients find they’ve run out of contact lenses or need a pair of new glasses in a hurry.

Founded: 1996

Bswift is a cloud-based platform that streamlines the HR process. Bswift’s software is completely customizable based on each company’s needs, and it allows for employees to pick and choose their benefits. The benefits enrollment and administrative platform assists healthcare companies in tracking and administering better benefits packages.

Founded: 2012

SwipeSense has created a hand hygiene monitoring system for hospitals and healthcare facilities. The technology uses cloud sensors and hygienic dispensary devices to record staff usage, helping hospitals track hand hygiene rates and reduce the need for manual observation. Approximately 1.7 million hospitals in the U.S. experience infection outbreaks each year. With an average cost of $15,000 per infection, SwipeSense is working to reduce a costly and dangerous problem in the healthcare space.

Founded: 1984

ComPsych is the world’s largest provider of employee assistance programs. The healthcare company is servicing over 100 million people across the world through employee assistance, behavioral health and FMLA programs. The company’s flexible and customizable programs help businesses attract and retain employees.

Founded: 2002

Emmi helps patients take a more active role in the management of their own healthcare with easy-to-use platforms that address everything from surgical preparation to screening reminders. Emmi’s software combines simple, conversational language and multimedia to reach patients beyond the doctor’s office, keeping them more informed and engaged throughout the entire care cycle.

Founded: 2014

Cubii is an ergonomic elliptical device designed to keep people sitting for long periods of time active. Cubii is smaller than other under-desk fitness devices and can be used in most spaces, eliminating banged-up knees and the need to rearrange furniture. Since the phrase, “sitting is the new smoking” gained traction, office dwellers are looking for new ways to workout. Cubii’s portable device offers a healthier version of sitting that can be used anywhere.

Founded: 2007

Analyte Health helps patients consume and understand diagnostic information. The company provides on-demand access to physicians and same-day lab appointments that are usually delivered within three days. Analyte has provided over 2.2 million lab results safely and cost effectively to patients while simultaneously shortening the turnaround of test results.

Founded: 2010

Caremerge closes the gap in communication between people in nursing facilities and their loved ones. The company’s dashboards provide complete integration of cross-platform information for both care providers and family members. Caremerge helps family members see what their loved ones are doing throughout the day, giving them peace of mind while giving providers an easy system for patient care management.

Founded: 2011

First Stop is a telehealth service providing 24/7 access to physicians, health information and advocacy services. First Stop is the answer to urgent medical needs when the doctor’s office is closed and the condition doesn’t warrant a trip to the emergency room.

Founded: 2014

Triggr Health has created a predictive tool for addiction recovery, offering 24/7 support for users in their moments of need. Using phone sensors and data, Triggr can detect potentially regressive behavior up to three days prior with 92 percent accuracy. This lets professional advocates intervene before it is too late.