Axuall, Inc., a digital network for verifying identity, credentials, and authenticity in real-time, and The MetroHealth System, an essential health system committed to providing health care to everyone in Cuyahoga County, OH, announced today its teams are collaborating to test digital credentials for segments of its physician staff.

The pilot will use new technologies and workflows to acquire, manage, and share digital credentials via a nationwide network of practitioners, health systems, and primary source issuers. 

When fully deployed, practitioners will hold an up-to-date, reusable, and verified set of digital credentials that will enable a considerably faster and more efficient privileging and payor enrollment process.

The goal of this collaboration is to apply the technology to standard processes and bylaws to reduce credentialing wait times, improve accuracy, and alleviate practitioner administrative burden. Ultimately, this will improve patient access to care by shortening the hiring process for health care systems—especially as delivery channels move beyond brick-and-mortar to telehealth and other innovative approaches. 

"We are thrilled to work with MetroHealth to test, refine, and perfect this technology," said Charlie Lougheed, Axuall's CEO. "Reducing unnecessary costs and burdens on practitioners is core to our mission of helping practitioners practice less paperwork and more medicine."

The Axuall Network leverages blockchain and portable digital wallets to enable secure, real-time sharing and monitoring of credentials. The technology uses biometrics to confirm practitioner identity and protect privacy, enabling practitioners to control how and when their credentials are shared. 

These new digital portfolios will include documentation of a practitioner's education, specialty training and board certifications, licenses, sanctions or medical malpractice judgments, evaluations, work history, and hospital affiliations. In short, a verified, instantly accessible professional profile that otherwise might take an employer or accreditation agency weeks or even months to assemble.

Axuall was formed in 2018 and raised $3 million in seed capital for R&D in 2019. In December, it began a pilot with Hyr Medical and is expected to announce additional pilots in 2020 as the technology and workflows are perfected and its national network of credential issuing partners grows. 

"We are excited to work together with Axuall to bring this innovation to our organization," said Julie Jacono, MetroHealth Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer. "Meeting the needs of our community requires that we reduce the barriers to deploying clinical resources across new geographies and delivery channels." 

AKRON, Ohio — Emily Kennedy, and her Akron-based start-up Hedgemon, just might be part of the solution to football's concussion troubles.

Kennedy and her team are hoping to change the game with help from a hedgehog.

"We were pretty surprised by what we learned about the hedgehog," Kennedy said. "In the wild, they're really active climbers, so it's not unusual for them to fall. But when they do, they curl into this ball and they're totally encased by their quills, which have evolved really impressive shock-absorbing properties."

Hedgemon was founded by University of Akron researchers in 2015. Today, they're in the process of developing and marketing a helmet safety liner based on those very hedgehog quills.

It's science based in nature -- an approach known as biomimicry.

"Biomimicry, at its essence, is innovation inspired by nature," she said. "One of the examples that's pretty ubiquitous that you probably have heard of is Velcro, which was actually inspired by how burrs stick to animal fur."

In fact, the University of Akron has emerged as a leader in this field, and it's what attracted Kennedy, a Massachusetts native, to Northeast Ohio.

"I never pictured myself as an Ohioan, but I jumped at the opportunity, moved here in 2012 and now Cleveland is home, Akron's home. I've come to really love it here."

She's even recruited her parents to move to the area as well. 

Kennedy and Hedgemon have been in the news quite a bit lately, thanks, in part, to her recognition as one of Cleveland Magazine's "Most Interesting People 2020." She says she hopes the positive attention will only help the company grow.

Right now, their liner is still in a testing phase, but Emily and her team believe their technology could -- one day -- have uses far beyond just football helmets.

"We think that we could find a way to adapt the solution for that so it could be in infant car seats, it could be in fall protection flooring for nursing homes or day care facilities. Maybe it's even going to be in automotive paneling so the possibilities are really, really broad."

How the Akron startup is fixing old methods with new tech

After decades of technological advances, you would assume the tech used to clean our drinking water has kept up with other industries. But that’s not necessarily true — just ask Fontus Blue President, CEO and founder Chris Miller. The Akron startup has developed a product that accomplishes a simple but difficult goal: making your drinking water safer and more consistent. The water experts’ platform helps treatment facilities maintain the right chemistry in drinking water while improving efficiency and reducing costs, a much-needed trip into the 21st century for humanity’s most important resource.

“We created a platform that helps monitor and recommend treatment decisions at drinking-water and wastewater facilities,” said Miller. “What makes me feel good is helping these operators who are faced with this complex chemistry and stressful job. Our secret weapon is supporting those operators. We’re not trying to drive the entire treatment plant with software that’s flipping levers for them. It’s collaborative because it helps us work with them with technology at the core.”

Managing drinking water isn’t easy, and Miller and his team are well aware. It takes extremely specific methods and preparation to avoid unwanted substances in water and every geographic location comes with its own specific challenges, from local algae to trace amounts of lead. Miller compares older methods of regulation to driving a manual car — sure, it’s doable, but it’s much easier and more reliable with an automatic transmission, especially when the risks are so great.

“If you’re in a swimming pool that has chlorine in the water, you don’t worry about drinking it or having it on your skin, and if you have a glass that contains dissolved organic materials, you would drink that water and think nothing of it,” said Miller. “But when you mix the two together and allow them time, they form these harmful byproducts. There’s a lot of complex chemistry that happens and there’s still a lot of research to be done. That’s where we come in. Our software isn’t just this powerful calculator; it allows facilities to deal with all the water-quality issues they have to manage.”

Miller was no stranger to water treatment before launching Fontus Blue. He’s been a civil engineering professor at the University of Akron since 1995, teaching courses focused on drinking-water quality. But several years ago, his work became more personal. Miller’s wife experienced multiple miscarriages around the same time his dog was diagnosed with cancer, two occurrences known to increase from exposure to carcinogens in drinking water. With solutions on his mind, Miller went in search of an answer.

“I started digging into the issue and found that it’s not if carcinogens are in your drinking water, but how many,” said Miller. “I was surprised. I’ve been doing drinking-water research for 25-plus years, and I realized that a lot of the research and technical advancements haven’t translated into real progress. So I decided to create the platform to try and facilitate that progress by translating the research into something drinking water utilities could use.”

Fontus Blue works with both public and private clients, helping to ensure a better quality of drinking water for a variety of populations. With the help of organizations like JumpStart and Bounce Hub, the company now has a presence in eight states and counting. And for a company with growth and innovation on its mind, Fontus Blue’s home in Akron provides what they need to attract talent, improve their product and continue to evolve.

“I’ve been in Ohio for almost 25 years, and the entrepreneurial support network has never been better,” said Miller. “It really helps to be living in this environment. Any time we’ve needed anything, we’ve never had trouble finding someone to support us. Whether they’re here because they went to school here or they’ve always been here, I think we have access to the talent and the affordability to build a team that can execute what we need. It’s almost comical how much more affordable it is to try and do things here in Ohio versus somewhere else.”

Recognition Robotics develops ground breaking visual recognition technology. From patented technology stemming from our discovery of how the human visual process functions, to user friendly visual measurement devices. Recognition Robotics provides state-of-the-art technology at the lowest life cycle costs for all of your visual recognition needs.

Website: https://recognitionrobotics.com/

Quanterra creates software that automatically detects, locates, and counts objects on aerial imagery.

Quanterra was founded in 2017 by Shoshana and Meir Ginsburg to provide automated image analysis solutions that support the explosive growth of the drone inspection industry.

The first service is COWculator, a service that automatically counts cows in aerial images obtained during a drone flyover.  The 99% accuracy that we provide surpasses professional guesstimates and enables feedlot audits to dramatically reduce their outlay of time and manpower during routine audits.  Our second product will be focused on ranches and pastureland, where it is extremely difficult to guesstimate the number of cows, calves and bulls on a ranch.

Website: https://www.quanterrasoftware.com/

Public Insight Corporation is the developer of 360-Public.com, a public website that transforms community data into valuable insight for communication, analysis, research, and education. 360-Public is free to the general public with paid subscriptions for broader, advanced analysis and application.

Website: https://publicinsightdata.com/

Innovative Devices is an emerging technologies firm headquartered in Northeast Ohio. Currently, we've developed the next generation of human/computer interface controls for personal, professional, military, and mobile computing by advancing a proprietary combination of sensors and wireless protocols with specialized software controls.

Website: http://mycestro.com/

Defensible CT Protocol Settings via Image Quality

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Website: http://plexar.com/

Environmental Fracturing Solutions, Inc. has developed a variant formulation of their parent company’s technology to provide a safe and cost-effective method to treat the water used in the fracking industry. The proprietary and patent pending technology platform provides a biocide /bio-static product that concentrates ions in their optimal antimicrobial state in solution. It is stable, easy to use and is EPA certified class IV, virtually harmless to handle.

The company received the Innovation Fund's A award in August 2013 and its B award in February 2014.

Coag Corp. has developed a single-use prescription product to control nosebleeds. The device works for people of all ages, but is primarily formulated for anticoagulated patients.  The company won a $25,000 Innovation Fund grant in November 2013.