Which healthcare startups did Harvard shortlist for finals in acceleration contest? (video)

A Harvard Healthcare Acceleration Challenge launched a competition in October to speed up availability of healthcare technologies earlier this year. About one month later, it has selected four healthcare startups spanning how hospital blood banks bid on blood from blood centers to predictive analytics for palliative care.

Four finalists were selected from 500 applicants in 29 countries and 43 states in the U.S. as part of the challenge. For the next year they’ll pursue their dissemination plans. In April, they will makes presentations at a conference on the Harvard Business School campus in Boston. They will share $150,000 in prize money now, and the winner, which will be named in November, will receive $50,000.

Here is a summary of each of the finalists:

Bloodbuyhas developed a framework for hospital based blood banks and blood centers to improve the bidding process for blood supplies. The idea behind the Dallas based company is to improve the geographic distribution of blood supplies and improve the prices …