The Rady School of Management at the University of California, San Diego today announced that Polka is the first company created within the school’s Lab to Market course to receive funding and it is making major inroads in the technology and health care industries. Polka is the first and only secure mobile aggregation and collaboration service to help users manage their health – anytime, anywhere, all the time.

The Rady School designed its signature course, Lab to Market, to complement its mission of educating leaders for innovation-driven organizations. In Lab to Market, Rady MBAs create new products or services and go through the commercialization process, with advice from faculty and business mentors.

Several companies have been formed out of Lab to Market projects, but the first to be funded is Polka. Mike Kirkwood (Rady MBA ’08) launched the company two years ago, filed patents for core technology and started marketing the product as part of his Lab to Market course at the Rady School. He has since received a significant investment from private investors.  Apple’s App Store now carries four Polka applications designed for the iPhone and iPod touch. Polka has realized more than 250,000 installs of its applications from the App Store in the past five months alone. 

“Mike used Lab to Market in the manner which it was intended, which resulted in a viable company,” said Rady School Dean Robert S. Sullivan. “He joined the school knowing a Rady MBA would help him move his innovation to the marketplace, and with the recent investment and growing client base it is clear he has done just that.”

Lab to Market is a three-course sequence that begins in the classroom and moves into a project-based environment. Students tap into ideas from companies, gain exposure to commercialization opportunities at leading research institutes — including various UC San Diego labs — or develop ideas drawn from the expertise and creativity of their classmates. Students work in teams, alongside faculty and business experts and coaches.

“The Rady MBA and the Lab to Market course in particular allowed me to really focus on the steps necessary to move Polka’s technology into a user-friendly, marketable product,” said Polka CEO Mike Kirkwood. “We are proud of the end product. Time is saved by consolidating your information, but more importantly, your life could be saved.”

Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Polka is the first and only secure mobile aggregation and collaboration service to help users manage their health -- anytime, anywhere, all the time. They provide the tools for consumers to create and manage complex personal health information with ease and the support of their health team. Polka’s personal healthcare management solution is backed by a patent-pending Me Server technology, and delivers secure identity management, real-time collaboration and synchronization and sharing on an open standards record format.

Polka keeps users’ important health information up-to-date and available anytime, anywhere, all the time. The company offers an integrated solution of Apple iPhone applications and a Web portal, charging for the service of synchronizing data and collaborating with a user’s team. Polka is the only company to provide a dynamic communication and collaboration tool that empowers users to keep personal logs and share real-time information with their medical team. Polka’s key applications now include My Health on the Web, My Health for the iPhone, If Found for the iPhone, Close Call for the iPhone and My Emergency Info for the iPhone.

The Rady School of Management at UC San Diego educates global leaders for innovation-driven organizations. A professional school within one of the top-ranked institutions in the U.S. for higher education and research, the Rady School offers a full-time MBA program, a FlexMBA program for working professionals, undergraduate and executive education courses. UC San Diego’s lineage includes 16 Nobel laureates (former and current faculty) and eight MacArthur Foundation award recipients. The Rady School at UC San Diego transforms innovators into business leaders.

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