Accomplished Collection of Early Stage Healthcare Companies Begin Work in Arkansas
Winrock International, Arkansas Heart Hospital, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) and BioVentures today announced the six companies selected to participate in the 2018 Health InnovatAR healthcare accelerator program, which is supported in part through a grant from the Arkansas Economic Development Commission. The selected startups include: Day Zero Diagnostics (Boston, MA); Ejenta (San Francisco, CA); ExplORer Surgical (Chicago, IL);Lapovations (Fayetteville, AR); Macro-eyes (Seattle, WA); and Medical Informatics Corp (Houston, TX).
The announcement was held at the Arkansas Heart Hospital with a welcome from Dr. Bruce Murphy, followed by a message from Governor Asa Hutchinson and short presentations from each of the six companies in the cohort.
The six companies were selected from hundreds of applicants across 20 different countries and are based in the foremost healthcare innovation capitals across the U.S. The strength of this cohort is evident in the fact that these companies already have 46 full-time employees and have raised over $15 million of external capital.
“The hospital involvement from Arkansas Heart Hospital and UAMS in this accelerator program is immersive and intensive, setting it apart from other healthcare accelerator programs in the country,” said Health InnovatAR director Jeff Stinson, a member of Winrock International’s Innovate Arkansas team. “This unfettered hospital access has allowed us to attract exceptionally accomplished companies to the program. The disruptive technologies these six companies bring to our hospital partners will help Arkansas Heart Hospital and UAMS continue their commitment to innovation and to deliver the highest quality care possible.”
Participating in a five-month program, the cohort will build solutions to challenges specifically identified by Arkansas Heart Hospital, UAMS and BioVentures as areas of opportunity within their organizations, including digital health platforms, medical devices and diagnostics. Each company will receive seed investment as well as the development and execution of a custom work plan governing their work with the hospital partners over the next five months.
The six companies will be in Little Rock to meet mentors and hospital management teams and to begin custom work plans. Throughout the program, companies will be working not just with Health InnovatAR’s hospital partners, but also with subject matter experts in the fields of HIPAA compliance, FDA/regulatory approval, intellectual property law, sales and marketing, and procurement.
“Arkansas is an emerging world leader in driving innovation in the delivery of healthcare,” said AEDC Executive Director Mike Preston, “and Health InnovatAR provides access to world-class clinical skill and knowledge, and investment capital. By supporting seed investments into start- up companies from across the nation, we are accelerating both growth and innovation in this important sector of our state’s economy.”
Healthcare is a growing industry for the state, comprising 16 percent of all Arkansas jobs with a 64-percent higher wage rate than the mean wage. In an effort to support this important economic contributor, Health InnovatAR and its partners will also be working with Arkansas- based healthcare startups in parallel with the six cohort companies.
Day Zero Diagnostics, Boston, MA
Uses genome sequencing and machine learning to modernize infectious disease diagnosis and treatment.
Ejenta, San Francisco, CA
A platform with remote monitoring and patient engagement applications to improve the lives of patients with chronic health conditions.
ExplORer Surgical, Chicago, IL
A workflow management tool with an interactive surgical playbook for live use during surgery.
Lapovations, Fayetteville, AR
A laparoscopic surgery device that uses existing operating room wall suction to lift and hold the abdominal wall more reliably and less invasively than current alternatives.
Macro-eyes, Seattle, WA
A predictive scheduling application that cuts revenue loss due to no-shows with a seamless add-on to existing scheduling systems.
Medical Informatics Corp, Houston, TX
A Clinical Intelligence Platform that transforms patient data into actionable information in a single, unified dashboard.
