Redefining healthcare: inaugural Joseph C. Belden Award finalist TECHMEDO
For more than 120 years, Belden has put innovation at the heart of everything we do. By connecting people, information and ideas, we help you unlock new possibilities.
As we enable these inventive ways of thinking, we like to shine a spotlight on other innovators working alongside us to transform and improve the future. That’s why, in 2024, Belden established the Joseph C. Belden Innovation Award.
Mr. Belden was an innovator. His patents, and the company he founded in 1902, were a key part of building the telecommunications industry. Today, we continue his legacy of innovation and spirit of innovation by recognizing and supporting the next generation of innovative technologies.
As we prepare to recognize the 2025 Joseph C. Belden Innovation Award honorees, we’re highlighting finalists from the program's inaugural year (2024). These forward-thinking companies are solving the problems that matter most.
Meet Joseph C. Belden Innovation Award finalist TECHMEDO
In rural and remote areas, primary care services are difficult or nearly impossible to access. These regions not only lack providers and infrastructure but also face a significant technology divide, without connectivity to support reliable virtual care.
And while healthcare in more economically developed and industrially advanced countries is more accessible, it still presents major obstacles. For example, in the United States:
- Access to care: 10.6% of patients delay or forgo care because they can’t find an available appointment when needed, 4.6% are unable to get to a provider and 2.4% say it takes too long to get to a provider.
- High costs: In 2023, healthcare spending increased by 7.5%, reaching $4.9 trillion, or $14,570 per person.
- Workforce shortages: Two out of every three providers reports healthcare burnout. By 2028, it’s estimated that we’ll face a shortage of 100,000 clinicians.
- Population dynamics: The United States projects a significant increase in the 65+ population, growing from 56.1 million in 2020 to 82.1 million by 2050.
While EMR systems were a substantial leap forward in healthcare, the need for seamless, efficient and accessible care continues to persist.
The problem, suggests TECHMEDO, is the approach being taken to healthcare. The focus is on treatment rather than prevention and detection. And once patients move into the healthcare system, they feel like transactions — not like people who have strong relationships with care providers.
TECHMEDO imagines a world where providers engage with people before they become official “patients,” providing education that keeps them strong and healthy. If patients do end up requiring critical care, TECHMEDO wants it to be a seamless process where patients can get involved and be their own advocates.
Its Healthcare Operating System (HOS) is a well-designed virtual primary care EMR platform that transforms practices and relationships for patients and providers. The company calls it a “digital front door” for hospitals and clinicians: It qualifies patients and sends them to the right kind of physician.
Patients are connected to providers who can diagnose, treat and prescribe for common health conditions.
It also offers:
- The ability to connect offline: Patients can access health information, set up appointments and use text, voice and video to communicate with providers, even without an internet connection. The app stores data locally; when a connection is available, it transfers the data so it’s online.
- Multilingual support: The platform supports multiple languages so patients can communicate with providers in their preferred language. A built-in translation feature translates messages and calls.
- Remote patient monitoring: Providers can track patients’ health conditions remotely with devices and sensors. It also sends alerts and reminders to patients and providers based on the patient’s health status.
- AI-enabled insights: It connects healthcare decision-makers to clinical data and hidden insights within patients’ medical records to improve outcomes and reduce costs.
According to Zahid Ali, TECHMEDO founder and CEO, the company’s HOS has reduced clinic visit times from 210 minutes to 47 minutes; it has also reduced the cost of care by 90% in some cases.
Naila Ahmed, executive director for SHINE Humanity, which has clinics in Pakistan, says 99% of the country’s clinics are manual with no access to technology. Doctors were writing notes on stacks of paper that were eventually stored in boxes.
But TECHMEDO revolutionized the patient care happening inside these clinics, allowing them to become paperless and giving providers better ways to document and track outcomes. Doctors are able to better treat patients because they have access to full medical histories. And because Wi-Fi connectivity is rare, the platform increases access to care with the ability to connect offline.
Connecting patients and providers to better care
In a way, Belden and TECHMEDO are on a similar mission: to help people connect to what’s possible and enable the industry to look at patients more holistically.
As providers are pushed to see more patients in less time, healthcare automation can play a key role in streamlining workflows, enhancing efficiency and improving patient outcomes.
By eliminating islands of data, digitizing different sources of patient information and bringing it all together into a platform like TECHMEDO, Belden helps providers and patients come together for better care coordination.
More about the Joseph C. Belden Innovation Award
The judging team, made up of industry experts, is currently evaluating submissions for the 2025 Joseph C. Belden Innovation Award. The competition is open to products or technologies designed for network infrastructure, data ingestion and analytics, connectivity or related applications that support significant innovation.
Eligible products must drive improved productivity or customer experience in one of Belden’s key industries.
Learn more about the Joseph C. Belden Innovation Award.
Related links:
- Joseph C. Belden Innovation Award
- 4 Healthcare Trends Driving the Need to Embrace Technology
- Transforming Patient Care through Healthcare Technology Integration
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