These health IT apps won top marks at Penn’s annual competition

The city’s health IT aspirations were alive and well at Penn’s annual app competition, AppItUP, Thursday.
Two medical-focused apps won the top prize: a potential $50,000 investment from state-backed investment firm Ben Franklin Technology Partners. (BFTP will do due diligence before investing, said BFTP’s Omar Mencin.) It’s not surprising, since Penn’s startup scene has a heavy medtech focus.
The winners were Animotion, which helps doctors track joint function for patients undergoing rehab, and ProNoto, which helps physicians keep up with the latest developments in medicine. Animotion is run by grad students Sylvia Qu (bioengineering and veterinary medicine) and Peter Gebhard (engineering), while ProNoto is run by faculty physician Brian Jenssen.
Judges included MentorTech Ventures’ Brett Topche and tech man-about-town Yuriy Porytko. After the pitches, this reporter moderated a conversation with Slyce president (and SnipSnap founder) Ted Mann and the Washington, D.C.-based cofounders of Babyscripts.
AppItUP is a yearlong affair, starting with an idea contest, then a pitch contest where dev firms choose the apps they want to build. (It does feel a bit risky for the dev partners, since they’re working for free and only two apps get a potential BFTP investment.) Center City-based CloudMine and Chesterbrook-based Excellis are building Animotion, while King of Prussia-based Offshorent is building ProNoto.