Two health firms join WPI's PracticePoint facility

Photo | File PracticePoint at Worcester Polytechnic Institute's Gateway Park in Worcester

Write a Comment

By Grant Welker

A Worcester startup aiming to help diabetics and a Cambridge firm creating devices for those with impaired mobility have joined Worcester Polytechnic Institute's PracticePoint incubator.

PracticePoint, located in Gateway Park on Prescott Street in Worcester, already has some major industry names as members, including Boston Scientific, GE, and MITRE Corp., along with UMass Medical School.

Now PracticePoint has two health startups joining to test and validate their products thanks to a grant from the Westborough-based Massachusetts eHealth Institute at the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative. An $85,000 grant announced Tuesday for PracticePoint will allow Worcester's Stability Health and Cambridge's eMotionRx to use PracticePoint's equipment and staff expertise.

Stability Health, based at 120 Front St., has created a technology-based care management system for diabetics. EMotionRX designs and builds devices to help people strengthen their muscles, improve their posture, and assist their legs when walking.

Both startups are joining what the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, or MassTech, calls the first facility in the state's Digital Health Sandbox Network. Gov. Charlie Baker stopped by PracticePoint in April to announce a two-year, $500,000 grant for PracticePoint and other so-called sandboxes to be added to the network later.

On Tuesday, MassTech also announced three more research and development facilities to join the network: Brigham Digital Innovation Hub in Boston, Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Institute for Medical Engineering and Science in Cambridge, and TechSpring at Baystate Health in Springfield.

PracticePoint was created initially with a $5-million capital grant from MassTech, a $2.5-million capital and equipment grant from GE Life Sciences and a $9.5-million commitment from WPI for facility, faculty, staff and operational support. Corporate members pay between $25,000 and $250,000 in a mix of cash and in-kind contributions for access to the facility, use of a student project and other benefits.