Title: The Social Role of Start Ups during the early COVID-19 Pandemic
Author(s) : Michele Thornton, Marty Martin, Zachary Boehler
COVID-19 has shone a light on many failures of the health system – equal access to health care, disaster preparedness, and resilience in supply chain shocks/planning. This study collected data on startups (n = 394) in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic illustrating the rapid problem-solving ability of the individuals, teams, and researchers who created them. Using a mixed-methods approach, designed to evaluate the social role of entrepreneurs we identify early to market (pre-May 2020) health start-ups responding to COVID-19, examine their global distribution and categorize them according to the World Health Organization (WHO) digital health interventions taxonomy. We find that they provided critical solutions to patients, providers and health systems at a time filled with uncertainty, economic hardship and significant loss. While the organizational success of these start-ups will be measured using traditional approaches, the pandemic has provided further justification, for assessing their value in terms of social impact.