What You Should Know:
– HealthTech Arkansas unveils its latest cohort of five digital health startups selected for the 2020 HealthTech Arkansas healthcare accelerator.
– Each participating company will receive $75k in seed investment through a convertible note and the opportunity to pilot their solutions.
Today, HealthTech Arkansas, Arkansas Children’s Hospital, Arkansas Heart Hospital, Arkansas Urology, Baptist Health, CHI St. Vincent, Conway Regional Health System, Mercy, OrthoArkansas, St. Bernards Healthcare, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), and Washington Regional Medical Center hosted a virtual event to introduce the five startup companies selected for the 2020 HealthTech Arkansas healthcare accelerator.
HealthTech Arkansas Cohort Background
The cohort will participate in a program that provides them the opportunity to pilot solutions specifically identified by Arkansas Children’s Hospital, Arkansas Heart Hospital, Arkansas Urology, Baptist Health, CHI St. Vincent, Conway Regional Health System, Mercy, OrthoArkansas, St. Bernards Healthcare, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), and Washington Regional Medical Center as areas of opportunity within their organizations, from neonatal health and cardiac care to medical devices and software platforms. Each company will receive $75,000 of investment capital through a SAFE or convertible note as well as complete and total access to clinicians and administrators while executing their pilot projects.
HealthTech Arkansas is a third-year accelerator program focused exclusively on provider engagement with early-stage companies and works with both Arkansas-based and out-of-state companies. The Arkansas Economic Development Commission awarded a grant to HealthTech Arkansas through a program designed to increase acceleration activities in targeted industries in the state.
The event included a welcome from Governor Asa Hutchinson and from Arkansas Children’s Hospital CEO Marcy Doderer, followed by short presentations from each of the five companies in the cohort. Both Ms. Doderer and Governor Hutchinson focused on the importance of working together to bring innovative technologies to Arkansas. Jeff Stinson, director of HealthTech Arkansas introduced the program and discussed its impact on the state.
Here is a look at the latest five startups from the HealthTech Arkansas cohort:
Astarte Medical, Yardly, PA
Astarte Medical is a precision nutrition company using software and predictive analytics to improve outcomes during the first 1,000 days of life. With an initial focus on preterm infants, Astarte Medical supports feeding protocols, practice, and decision-making in the neonatal ICU with a suite of digital tools and diagnostics designed to standardize feeding, optimize nutrition and quantify gut health.
nView Medical, Salt Lake City, UT
The nView_s1 is an imaging system that provides instant 3D images in the OR with minimal radiation. Like a C-arm, the nView_s1 images from a stationary single position. Unlike a C-arm, novel AI reconstruction techniques allow it to provide 3D images.
Raydiant Oximetry, San Ramon, CA
Raydiant Oximetry has developed a non-invasive fetal pulse oximeter to directly monitor a fetus’s blood oxygen saturation during labor and delivery and provide the key missing vital sign that clinicians need to more accurately assess the baby’s health during childbirth.
Vena Vitals, Irvine, CA
Vena Vitals, Inc. is re-innovating the way blood pressure is monitored by using soft stretchable sensors that can conform to the body and accurately measure arterial pulse. Their technology provides the benefits of continuous, beat-to-beat blood pressure measurements, but in a non-invasive way.
Zeto, Santa Clara, CA
Zeto has taken a significant step towards simplifying EEG. The Zeto product is the first and only dry electrode EEG headset and cloud platform cleared by the FDA for clinical use.
“While the hospitals in Arkansas have a large economic impact on our state, we’re still a rural state struggling with health equity. We believe innovation in healthcare has significant potential to address the inequities, so we are excited to introduce these five startup companies to Arkansas and the powerful teams available to them at all of our healthcare provider partners around the state,” said Stinson.
“The guaranteed pilot projects from 11 hospitals from around the state are what truly sets our accelerator program apart from others in the country. This is what allowed Arkansas to attract such high-quality companies to the program,” said Stinson.
Stinson has worked closely with large accelerator programs across the country to recruit the best applicants for HealthTech Arkansas. As evidence of this effort, Kathryn Zavala, COO of MedTech Innovator based out of Los Angeles, California also spoke at the kick-off event, noting that the collaboration among the 11 providers to support HealthTech Arkansas was unique and a great opportunity for healthcare startup companies.
