Five companies from around the United States have been selected to participate in the 2020 HealthTech Arkansas accelerator.
Now in its third year, HealthTech Arkansas aims to accelerate early-stage companies in the digital health, medical devices and diagnostic platform sectors. Through the accelerator, cohort companies are guaranteed at least two pilot projects or clinical trials with Arkansas health care providers.
HealthTech Arkansas worked with representatives from 11 health care partners to determine the five companies. According to a news release, hundreds of applicants, representing 14 counties, were interviewed during the process. The health care partners include Arkansas Children’s Hospital, Arkansas Heart Hospital, Arkansas Urology, Baptist Health, CHI St. Vincent, Conway Regional Health System, Mercy, OrthoArkansas, St. Bernards Healthcare, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), and Washington Regional Medical Center.
“Our provider partners around the state are excited to introduce the new cohort companies to their teams and launch pilot programs that can make a difference in patient care,” Jeff Stinson, director of HealthTech Arkansas, said in a statement.
The companies selected include Astarte Medical of Yardly, Penn.; nView Medical of Salt Lake City, Utah; Raydiant Oximetry of San Ramon, Calif.; Vena Vitals of Irvine, Calif.; and Zeto of Santa Clara, Calif.
Astarte is a precision nutrition company that is focused on improving health outcomes in the first 1,000 days of life. nView Medical provides instant 3D images for operating rooms with minimum radiation. Raydiant Oximetry provides a non-invasive fetal pulse oximeter that monitors blood oxygen saturation for fetuses during labor and delivery. Vena Vitals has developed stretchable sensors designed to accurately measure arterial pulse. Zeto has designed a dry EEG headset and cloud platform aimed at simplifying EEG.
“We’ve expanded the applicant pool and the number of providers in our coalition in each of the three years at HealthTech Arkansas,” Stinson said. “The guaranteed pilot projects and clinical studies from our providers around the state are what differentiates us from any other program in the country.”
In addition to receiving guarantees for pilots/trials, cohort companies receive $75,000 in up-front investment (through a SAFE agreement or convertible note), access to the HealthTech Arkansas Fund and investing partners and access to a clinical mentor.
This accelerator will be held virtually. According to the accelerator’s website, the kick-off is scheduled for Oct. 5-7, 2020.
HealthTech Arkansas has already graduated two cohorts. In 2018, six companies – DayZero Diagnostics, Ejenta, Explorer Surgical, Macro-Eyes Health, Medical Informatics and Lapovations – participated in the accelerator. The 2019 cohort included BardyDx, Droice Labs, Health Note, Medumo, OMNY and toSense.
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