New technologies are invigorating the hospital, impacting everything from how doctors access data to how they engage and treat their patients. As new products emerge to drive better care, we selected the companies and leaders in health IT that will dramatically impact workflow, patient-provider communication, and new EHR solutions fueling innovation and providing opportunities for more connected care.

Dr. Ivana Schnur is the Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer of Sense.ly, the breakthrough “virtual nurse” service that enables clinical practices to achieve scale while empowering patients to play a more active role in their healthcare. Launched in early 2013, Sense.ly combines virtual and mobile technologies (including avatars) and dramatic improvements in sensor technologies to create mobile solutions for all aspects of long term clinical care. Passionate about the therapeutic uses of video and digital media in the field of palliative care, Ivana manages all clinical aspects of Sense.ly’s products, services and operations, including the company’s ongoing partner trials. She brings to Sense.ly extensive experience in the design of clinical protocols and user interfaces, including the application of virtual and mobile technology in the group or individual clinical settings

Consumer facing finalists Zest Health, Health Recovery Solution, Tiatros, Sense.ly, and the MediSafe Project each had 5 minutes to pitch their business plan followed by 5 minutes of Q&A from our panel of expert judges.

From Orange Labs, Adam built a prototype virtual patient triage and training device using voice recognition, avatars and the Kinect which he showed at Health 2.0 last year. Now the company spun out from Orange Labs, Sense.ly, is a virtual online nurse equipped with a set of remote diagnostic tools.

Although progress is being made in addressing deficiencies in how care is delivered, the U.S. health care system is still a “broken” system from the perspective of many patients and providers. Many patients still find it difficult to access a health provider. Providers find that reimbursement rules constrain the types of interactions for which they’ll be paid. In response to persistent problems with health care delivery a variety of new approaches to care delivery have emerged. We’ll take a look at a group of companies that have developed technologies to facilitate interactions between patients and providers.

Danny Sands moderates this panel on innovative technologies that allow for new avenues of patient-provider communication.

Adam Odessky, Product Manager at Sense.ly, demos this virtual online nurse equipped with a set of remote diagnostic tools. Using speech recognition, augmented reality, and medical devices Sense.ly can quickly assess a patient’s condition and provide caregivers with relevant insights for meaningful follow-up.