OPEN VIRTUAL EVENT, OCTOBER 5, 2020 at 5:00 PM, FEATURING GOVERNOR ASA HUTCHINSON

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, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), and Washington Regional Medical Center are hosting a virtual event on October 5, 2020 at 5:00 PM to introduce the five startup companies selected for the 2020 HealthTech Arkansas healthcare accelerator. The event will include a welcome from Governor Asa Hutchinson and Arkansas Children’s Hospital CEO Marcy Doderer, followed by short presentations from each of the five companies in the cohort.

“We are excited to offer a virtual event this year to a broader audience and to introduce the new cohort to Arkansas and the powerful teams available to them at all of our healthcare provider partners around the state,” said Jeff Stinson, director of HealthTech Arkansas. 

The five companies were selected from hundreds of applicants across 14 different countries and are headquartered across the country in California, Utah, and Pennsylvania. The cohort will participate in a program that provides them the opportunity to build 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, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), and Washington Regional Medical Center as areas of opportunity within their organizations, from heart health and cardiac care to medical devices and software platforms. Each company will receive seed investment 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 virtual event is free and open to the press and public. Attendees can register for the event at http://bit.ly/hta2020event. More information about HealthTech Arkansas, including a link to RSVP for the kick-off event, can be found at HealthTechArkansas.com.

HEALTHTECH ARKANSAS AND SKYBROOK VENTURE PARTNERS COLLABORATE TO SUPPORT INNOVATIVE HEALTHCARE STARTUPS

HealthTech Arkansas and SkyBrook Venture Partners have agreed to work together, share contacts, and provide opportunities for innovative healthcare startup companies around the world. 

SkyBrook Venture Partners works to elevate awareness of investable companies from Central and Eastern Europe among U.S. investors and other global marketers. HealthTech Arkansas is an accelerator and early-stage investment fund that works to bring innovative healthcare technologies to Arkansas healthcare providers. Together, SkyBrook Venture Partners and HealthTech Arkansas will evaluate any early-stage companies from the SkyBrook client portfolio that might benefit from clinical engagement with Arkansas hospitals and physician practices, as well as work to connect researchers from the SkyBrook network with Arkansas clinicians and researchers for cooperative research and development agreements. 

“Partnering with SkyBrook Venture Partners will expand our ability to find new technologies that can benefit Arkansas healthcare providers, ultimately improving the level of care available in Arkansas,” said Jeff Stinson, director of HealthTech Arkansas. “Our goal is to bring people and innovative thinking to the Arkansas healthcare community that can improve our providers’ operations by improving quality of care, enhance efficiencies, reduce costs, and ultimately grow business opportunities in the state.”

“Through our collaboration with HealthTech Arkansas, we have the opportunity to introduce innovative healthcare solutions companies from around the world to providers that can help them test and grow their businesses with pilot projects or clinical trials in Arkansas,” said Kaja Kuczynska, co-founder for SkyBrook Venture Partners.

HealthTech Arkansas’s 2020 cohort was announced in September 2020 and includes five early-stage companies that are headquartered across the country in California, Utah, and Pennsylvania: Astarte Medical, nView Medical, Raydiant Oximetry, Vena Vitals, and Zeto. The program will kick off in October. The program works with companies in three categories: digital health and software, medical devices, and diagnostic platforms.

ABOUT HEALTHTECH ARKANSAS

HealthTech Arkansas is an accelerator and early-stage investment fund that recruits worldwide for the most accomplished startups in the areas of digital health, medical devices, and diagnostic platforms. Those companies accepted into the program are guaranteed at least two pilot projects or clinical trials from among eleven leading hospitals, health systems, and physician practices in Arkansas. HealthTech Arkansas is the only program in the U.S. to guarantee pilot projects and clinical trials with healthcare providers. More information can be found at HealthTechArkansas.com.

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ABOUT SKYBROOK VENTURE PARTNERS

SkyBrook Venture Partners is a company focusing on bridging the gap between the USA and Central/ Eastern Europe. SkyBrook works with American companies that are looking to enter the European market through M&A or JV agreements. Simultaneously they work with American companies that are looking to scale into the region by finding them new clientele and creating R&D opportunities. As for Europe, SkyBrook works closely with companies in the region that are looking to scale outside of their market and can assist them with raising capital, finding clientele, FDA approval, access to clinical research, and much more. They look for the competitive advantages in which they can help clients scale, access new markets, attract investment, and build opportunities. SkyBrook’s extensive work with startups ranges from building three-to-six month incubators all the way to raising multiple series A rounds, for both B2B & B2C startups from all industries. For additional information about Skybrook Venture Partners, visit https://skybrookvp.com/.

FIVE EARLY STAGE COMPANIES SELECTED FOR 2020 PROGRAM

HealthTech Arkansas, along with 11 healthcare providers — 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 — announced the five early-stage companies selected for the 2020 HealthTech Arkansas healthcare accelerator.

Representatives from each of the 11 healthcare providers interviewed applicants and selected companies with technologies that have the potential to advance innovation at their respective organizations. The five companies were selected from hundreds of applicants across 14 different countries and are headquartered across the country in California, Utah, and Pennsylvania. 

“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,” said Jeff Stinson, director of HealthTech Arkansas. 

“We’ve expanded the applicant pool and the number of providers in our coalition in each of the three years at HealthTech Arkansas,” said Stinson. “The guaranteed pilot projects and clinical studies from our providers around the state are what differentiates us from any other program in the country.”

The five companies are:

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. 

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, 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 seed investment 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. 

HEALTHTECH ARKANSAS AND THE CENTER FOR ADVANCING INNOVATION PARTNER TO EXPAND OPPORTUNITIES FOR HEALTHCARE STARTUPS

HealthTech Arkansas and the Center for Advancing Innovation (CAI) have partnered to work together with healthcare researchers and early-stage companies to drive innovation in clinical environments. The Center for Advancing Innovation launches startups around promising inventions in order to unleash life-changing inventions with exponential impact; create knowledge-based jobs and new markets; boost the economy and engage diverse communities, including addressing economic inequality.

“This collaboration with the Center for Advancing Innovation has incredible potential for both organizations, as each of us has strong, well-developed programs for advancing healthcare innovation,” said Jeff Stinson, director of HealthTech Arkansas. "We’re particularly excited about CAI’s Innovate Children’s Health Challenge, as it ties in directly with our innovation programming at Arkansas Children’s, Inc., an important HealthTech Arkansas partner. We have no doubt we’ll be able to improve the quality of pediatric health in Arkansas as a direct result of this collaboration.”

The Innovate Children’s Health Challenge is an open innovation contest to advance high-impact solutions to improve children’s health globally. The Innovate Children’s Health Challenge will launch over 15 startups to commercialize promising therapeutics, diagnostics, prognostics, medical devices, and digital health solutions that could potentially work with HealthTech Arkansas and its provider partners across the state of Arkansas.

“CAI will have the opportunity to expand its network of healthcare-based startups and work with an accelerator program that provides deep, valuable clinical engagement for its startups,” said Rosemarie Truman, CAI’s Founder and CEO. “By working with HealthTech Arkansas, our startups will be able to gain access to a world-class ecosystem of galvanized hospitals to pilot their products in a clinical setting. Gaining access to Arkansas Children’s Hospital will be pivotal for our Innovate Children’s Health Challenge startups.”

As part of the partnership, each organization will exchange directories of healthcare startups, investors, and resources, and collaboratively work together to advance new technologies towards commercialization. This effort aligns with HealthTech Arkansas’s mission to identify and bring superior healthcare technologies to Arkansas to benefit the state’s providers.

Applications for HealthTech Arkansas’s 2020 cohort closed on June 30, 2020, and the program is currently reviewing the almost 200 applications received this year. The cohort selections will be announced in September, and the program will kick off in October. The program is seeking companies in three categories: digital health and software, medical devices, and diagnostic platforms. Each company will receive $75,000 of investment capital and is guaranteed at least two pilot projects with Arkansas healthcare providers.

CAI’s Innovate Children’s Health Challenge is still open for entry, and we welcome startups and/or entrepreneurs to enter at http://www.innovatechildrenshealth.org.

ABOUT HEALTHTECH ARKANSAS

HealthTech Arkansas is an accelerator and early-stage investment fund that recruits worldwide for the most accomplished startups in the areas of digital health, medical devices, and diagnostic platforms. Those companies accepted into the program are guaranteed at least two pilot projects or clinical trials from among eleven leading hospitals, health systems, and physician practices in Arkansas. HealthTech Arkansas is the only program in the U.S. to guarantee pilot projects and clinical trials with healthcare providers. More information can be found at HealthTechArkansas.com.

ABOUT THE CENTER FOR ADVANCING INNOVATION

The Center for Advancing Innovation (CAI) is a global public-private partnership, non-profit focused on creating a virtuous circle of innovation and driving growth breakthroughs through novel, creative paradigms and models. CAI's mission is to accelerate and increase the volume of technology commercialization to ignite entrepreneurship, bolster the global economy, and maximize the potential of promising inventions. CAI’s award-winning challenge-based accelerator, rigorous evidence-based due diligence, and capital-efficient lean management models serve to hyper-accelerate “gazelle” high-performing startups for outsized investor returns. Named as the “Tinder for Startups” by Nature, the “Kickstarter for IP” by Wired, and a “Powerful Innovation Toolkit” by the White House, CAI launched 300+ startups and trained 3500+ entrepreneurs in 100+ cities worldwide since 2014. For additional information about CAI, please visit thecenterforadvancinginnovation.org.

DR. STEFFANY BENTON JOINS HEALTHTECH ARKANSAS AS CLINICAL DIRECTOR

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HealthTech Arkansas has hired Steffany Benton, DNP, APRN, FNP-BC as the Clinical Director for the startup accelerator program. Dr. Benton will work with HealthTech Arkansas director Jeff Stinson and Clinician-in-Residence Dr. Amy Hester to evaluate program applicants, assist founders in administering their pilot projects with Arkansas healthcare providers, and develop national relationships for potential partnerships with the program.

Dr. Benton brings her 11 years of clinical nursing experience to the program to bridge the communications between the startup healthcare companies accepted into the accelerator and the 11 healthcare providers collaborating with HealthTech Arkansas — Arkansas Heart Hospital, Arkansas Children’s Hospital, Arkansas Urology, Baptist Health, CHI St. Vincent, Conway Regional, Mercy, OrthoArkansas, St. Bernards Healthcare, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), and Washington Regional Medical Center. 

As a doctoral-prepared Advanced Practice Registered Nurse who is licensed and board-certified as a Family Nurse Practitioner, Dr. Benton has a scope of practice that includes diagnosis, treatment, and management of patients across the entire life spectrum, in both acute care and clinic settings. She will use her healthcare knowledge to evaluate new healthcare technologies to make a determination as to which of those technologies have the ability to enhance quality of care, improve clinical outcomes, make providers more efficient, and generally add value to the healthcare system. For entrepreneurs, Dr. Bention will help these inventors and startup company founders understand how their technologies and innovations can benefit the healthcare provider organizations.

“We’re incredibly fortunate to have Dr. Benton on the HealthTech Arkansas team. Her broad clinical base of experience allows her to understand and assess virtually every new technology we see, and also communicate with founders and providers in a language they understand,” said Stinson. “She hit the ground running and is already making a major impact on our program.”

“I was drawn to the HealthTech Arkansas program from the moment I learned about,” said Benton. “The impact it’s had on healthcare entrepreneurs and Arkansas providers has been significant, with almost unlimited potential to grow and do even greater things in the future. I’m very proud to be joining this team.”

Applications for the 2020 cohort closed on June 30, 2020. HealthTech Arkansas is currently reviewing the almost 200 applications received for the 2020 accelerator program. The cohort selections will be announced in September and the program will kick off in October. The program is seeking companies in three categories: digital health and software, medical devices, and diagnostic platforms. Each company will receive $75,000 of investment capital and is guaranteed at least two pilot projects with Arkansas healthcare providers.

Arkansas Program Member Ancil Lea Releases New Book

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Ancil Lea

FREE ebook: The Scorecard System

Ancil Lea has spent the past three years writing this book.

For over 31 years, Ancil Lea has worked with over 2,000 Medical clinics, hospitals, surgery centers and physicians, selling and implementing medical software technology for different applications within these entities.  About five years ago, he was approached by two CEOs, a hospital and a large specialty clinic, to not sell them any software, but to help them make the best selection for their organizations based on his knowledge and experience.

‘It’s an interesting perspective of stepping on the ‘other side of the table’ to be the one guiding the selection process,’ he says.  ‘You know all the tricks and get to leverage this knowledge of how software companies operate for better prices as well!’

What came out of these projects was process and system to ‘score’ the software solution demonstrations. Lea actually took this process through the Delta I-Fund with Winrock International in the spring 2019 and in the HealthTech Arkansas program in 2020 to hone in on and develop the value offering further for healthcare. It made sense to use this process and make it end decision easy, but more than that, involving all the stakeholders from the start ensured adoption of the solutions as well.

Ancil has written The Scorecard System, a book that outlines this selection and adoption process of medical software technology, and highlights the use of The Scorecard System in the process. It will be released Monday, May 11th. To find out more or to sign up for a pre-release go to www.ancillea.com.

Ancil has written other books, including Common Grounds and Cyberwar. Both can be accessed by going to the website.

Health Note Offering Free COVID-19 Resource

HealthTech Arkansas cohort company Health Note has a platform that keeps healthcare workers safe from possible virus transmission by screening, collecting, documenting, and triaging patient data before an encounter. Given the urgency of the situation in hospital emergency rooms, Heath Note is offering this platform at no cost to help emergency departments across the country. This COVID-19-focused solution can go live in hours. To schedule a brief demo and ask questions, visit https://www.healthnote.com/.

Problem:

  • High rate of transmission of COVID-19.

  • Not enough personal protective equipment for health care providers

  • High risk that Frontline Healthcare Providers will become exposed and either require quarantine or become ill.

  • Immediate need to improve screening methods that minimize transmission opportunities between patients and providers in the emergency room.

Goals:

  • Maintain and improve patient screening effectiveness and throughput for COVID-19 in the emergency department in the face of rapidly increasing high-risk encounters.

  • Reduce the risk of viral transmission to healthcare workers within the emergency room.

  • Reduce the risk of nosocomial viral transmissions to patients within the ER.

Health Note Helps Solve these issues:

  • Patients are asked questions before being seen, helping notify staff of possible risk factors. Help save critical Masks / Gloves / Protective equipment.

  • Simple triage dashboard directs patients to specified areas to minimize exposure.

  • Rapid standardized collection of critical screening information from patients through mobile phones via a web/text interface minimizes staff time.

  • Stand-alone web option for rapid deployment in minutes to hours.

  • CDC Form Submission - Autofills forms that can be downloaded in PDF and submit.