HealthTech Arkansas Companies In The News

2018 cohort company Ejenta partnered with Point3Health, the parent organization of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Tufts Health Plan, on a pilot aimed at improving the health of its members with congestive heart failure. Learn more here.

2018 cohort company Lapovations has signed distribution agreements with VersaMed, LLC, EPL Surgical, and Edge Surgical, to provide sales and distribution for their flagship product, AbGrab®. Learn more here, here, and here.

2018 cohort company Macro-Eyes was selected as the winner of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology's (ASA(ALT)) xTechSearch 6 proof-of-concept finals held at the AUSA Conference in Arlington, Virginia. The Macro-Eyes Vision Based Inventory Management (VBIM) mobile-based supply chain technology was selected from 19 finalists, narrowed down from more than 200 companies. Learn more here.

2019 cohort company Health Note announced the close of a $17 million Series A financing round led by SignalFire. SignalFire is joined by UnityPoint Health, Northwell Holdings, the for-profit arm of Northwell Health focused on investment in early stage/growth opportunities, strategic partnerships and the cultivation of internal innovations that drive improvements in patient care and create diversified revenue streams for the health system, and Cedars Sinai Health Ventures. Learn more here.

2020 cohort company nView Medical surpassed its landmark 100th clinical case with the help of 22 surgeons at six leading pediatric facilities, including three of the top 10 facilities in the nation. Over the course of the first 100 cases, nView medical achieved FDA clearance of its integrated true-map navigationTM system, making the nView s1 the only integrated imaging and navigation system specifically designed for pediatric surgery. Learn more here.

2020 cohort company Zeto is now offering its customers a remote electroencephalography (EEG) reading service. This was made possible through a partnership with a physician-led organization dedicated to providing expert, high-quality telehealth-assisted EEG interpretation to hospitals and outpatient settings, regardless of geographic location. Learn more here.

2021 cohort company Genetesis announced that it has closed $17.5 million in Series C Financing. The round was led by Mithril Capital with participation from Cercano Management as well as from existing investors, including JobsOhio Growth Capital, Ohio Innovation Fund and CincyTech. This investment brings the company’s total funding to over $40 million. Learn more here.

2021 cohort company Moving Analytics has raised $20 million in a round co-led by Seae Ventures and Wellington Access Ventures. Learn more here.

2021 cohort company SoniVie announced that the first patient was treated with its Renal Artery Denervation TIVUS™ technology, as part of the recently FDA IDE-approved pilot study to treat hypertension. Learn more here.

HealthTech Arkansas and SymBiosis Form BioAR Trial Accelerator

HealthTech Arkansas and SymBiosis have come together to create BioAR Trial, an accelerator program to help biotherapeutics companies in late pre-clinical stages of development bring groundbreaking therapies to market faster, while increasing Arkansans’ access to cutting-edge clinical care and innovative medicines.

Companies from around the world are invited to apply to participate in BioAR Trial, which will focus on deploying advanced and emerging therapeutic modalities—such as precision medicines, biologics, cell therapies, and genetic medicines—to treat serious and life-threatening diseases in oncology, immune disorders, and cardio-metabolic disease. The application for BioAR Trial is now open through January 15, 2022, at bioarkansas.co. BioAR Trial’s first cohort of five companies will begin in April 2023.

BioAR Trial’s partner hospitals and health systems are:

  • Arkansas Children’s Research Institute

  • Arkansas Heart Hospital

  • Baptist Health

  • CHI St. Vincent

  • Highlands Oncology Group

  • St. Bernards Healthcare

  • University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences

More information can be found at bioarkansas.co.

HEARTX ACCELERATOR ANNOUNCES FIVE STARTUP COMPANIES SELECTED FOR THE 2022 PROGRAM

KICK-OFF EVENT SCHEDULED FOR NOVEMBER 1, 2022 at 5:30 PM

HeartX, powered by HealthTech Arkansas and MedAxiom, along with seven Arkansas healthcare providers — Arkansas Children’s Hospital, Arkansas Heart Hospital, Baptist Health, CHI St. Vincent, Conway Regional Health System, St. Bernards Healthcare, and Washington Regional Medical Center — have selected the five startup healthcare companies that will participate in the 2022 accelerator program. HeartX is a cardiovascular-focused healthcare accelerator that facilitates guaranteed hospital pilot projects and clinical trials for accomplished, early-stage companies bringing new cardiovascular innovations to market.

The five companies selected for the 2022 HeartX program are:

Acorai, Helsingborg, Sweden

Acorai produces a device for heart failure management through non-invasive intracardiac pressure monitoring. It is handheld and uses multi-modal sensor technologies and a proprietary machine learning system based on unique insights into flow and pressure dynamics.

Echo IQ, Sydney, Australia

Echo IQ uses AI to support the diagnosis of structural heart conditions. The AI helps to identify at-risk patients classified by guidelines and patients who have a risk phenotype but fall outside of traditional guidelines.

iCardio.ai, Los Angeles, California

The iCardio.ai Brain is an AI software that can intake an entire echocardiogram and produce a full cardiologist report. The software is trained to recognize multiple pathologies and can be used to more efficiently identify at-risk patients, increase visibility into abnormalities, and increase the accuracy and consistency of diagnosis.

MediWhale, Seoul, South Korea

MediWhale has created Reti-CVD, an AI analytic tool that uses retinal images to identify people with high CVD risk. Developed using large global epidemiological databases, the analytic identifies subtle features in retinal vasculature for precision CVD risk calculation.

SafeBeat Rx, Chico, California

SafeBeat Rx is an at-home kit that includes machine-learning software which automates ECG measurements and recommends drug dosing to physicians, as well as FDA-approved devices (mobile ECG; mobile cardiac telemetry; wearable cardioverter defibrillator). This kit enables at-home initiation of the most efficacious antiarrhythmic drugs, replacing a 3-day hospitalization.

HeartX is hosting an event on November 1, 2022, at 5:30 PM to introduce the five startup companies selected for the 2022 accelerator program. The event will be held at Arkansas Heart Hospital Encore Medical Center and include a welcome from Dr. Bruce Murphy, followed by short presentations from each of the five companies in the cohort. The event is free and open to the press and the public. Attendees can register for the event here. More information about HeartX, including a link to RSVP for the kick-off event, can be found on the HeartX website.

“We are excited to reveal the new cohort and introduce them 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. “This year’s companies are exceptionally strong, due in no small part to MedAxiom’s contributions as our program partner. We’re proud of our role in healthcare innovation as the only program in the country that guarantees hospital pilot projects for early-stage companies, which produces exceptionally accomplished cohorts.”

“The cardiovascular industry is steeped in innovation and technology, which has resulted in impressive advancements in care delivery for patients around the world. MedAxiom and HealthTech Arkansas formed HeartX to accelerate cardiovascular innovation and bring new solutions to the market by connecting early-stage companies with healthcare delivery networks. The HeartX 2022 cohort companies share MedAxiom’s mission of transforming cardiovascular care and improving heart health. We look forward to working closely with these innovators to deliver new options to cardiovascular organizations and patients,” said Joe Sasson, PhD, MedAxiom’s chief commercial officer and executive vice president of Ventures.

Representatives from each of the seven healthcare providers interviewed applicants and selected companies with technologies that have the potential to advance cardiovascular innovation and cardiac care at their respective organizations. The cohort will participate in a program that provides them the opportunity to build solutions specifically identified by Arkansas cardiovascular healthcare providers as areas of opportunity within their organizations. Each company will receive $150,000 of investment capital as well as complete and total access to clinicians and administrators while executing their pilot projects with Arkansas hospitals.

ABOUT HEALTHTECH ARKANSAS

HealthTech Arkansas helps to drive innovation for healthcare provider organizations through its accelerator programs and through internal innovation programming. Its flagship accelerator, HeartX, recruits worldwide for the most accomplished cardiovascular-focused 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 the ten largest hospitals and health systems in Arkansas. More information can be found at HealthTechArkansas.com.

ABOUT MEDAXIOM

MedAxiom, an ACC Company, is the cardiovascular community’s premier source for organizational performance solutions. MedAxiom is transforming cardiovascular care by combining the knowledge and power of 450+ cardiovascular organization members, thousands of administrators, clinicians and coders and 40+ industry partners. Through the delivery of proprietary tools, smart data and proven strategies, MedAxiom helps cardiovascular organizations achieve the Quadruple Aim of better outcomes, lower costs, improved patient experience and improved clinician experience. Learn more at medaxiom.com.

Healthcare Hackathon: Participation Tips

In addition to the event we just co-hosted, healthcare hackathons are happening all over the country. These hackathons bring people with diverse perspectives — clinicians, engineers, designers, software developers, business people, and patients — together in an intense, fun-filled, multi-day event to develop and build solutions that address healthcare challenges. Participants form teams, collaborate, and focus on a specific problem or idea in healthcare to come up with innovative ideas and solutions. Some people participate in these competitions for the thrill and the opportunity to win a cash prize. Others participate because they have meaningful insights to contribute to a problem that is important to them.

If you plan to participate in an upcoming healthcare hackathon, here are some tips:

  1. Research the problem and learn directly from the people who have the issue you are trying to solve. Talk to the end-users, watch how they currently solve the issue and try to experience it yourself.

  2. Establish a hypothesis and begin to test it among key users. Before you start to build any models, discuss your idea with those who will impact the most from your idea.

  3. Identify roles on your team. Assign tasks based on core skills needed to build your idea.

  4. Validate and iterate throughout the process. Because you will need to move quickly during a hackathon event, things will not always work perfectly before you can test them. That is okay. In this situation, you want to pivot and explore throughout the development process.

  5. Maintain constant communication with your team. As a team, maintain the camaraderie of normal communication, irrespective of the tense circumstances. Be it the last-minute change or inability to do a particular task, keep the other team members updated.

Have fun and good luck!

Arkansas Children’s Hackathon Generates Software Innovations

HealthTech Arkansas joined with Cartwheel Startup Studio, the University of Arkansas, and Startup Junkie to administer the Digital Health Challenge in Bentonville, Arkansas April 1-3, 2022. Nine teams representing individuals from seven states competed in the challenge.

Five current challenges faced by Arkansas Children’s that lend themselves to software solutions were presented to hackathon teams. Following the presentations and a robust Q&A session, each team chose the challenge they wanted to tackle over the course of the weekend. After final presentations on Sunday, a highly experienced judging panel chose the winning team: Tulsa’s OK. The team won the grand prize of $10,000, sponsored by Startup Junkie. But even better, six of the nine teams were chosen to continue conversations with Arkansas Children’s for the development and potential piloting of their software solutions.

“The commitment by Arkansas Children’s to the hackathon was extraordinary and was the primary driver of the event’s success,” said Jeff Stinson, director of HealthTech Arkansas. “Not only did they spend considerable time prior to the event developing and vetting challenges to be presented, but they committed significant numbers of subject matter experts and end-users for customer discovery interviews and mentoring during the course of the weekend.”

"Bringing talented people together to build, test and implement software solutions to improve care provided by Arkansas Children’s was the goal for the hackathon,” said Barry Brady, COO, Arkansas Children’s Research Institute. “Matching Arkansas Children’s subject matter experts with creative developers and engineers to collaborate on developing pediatric health solutions was a great experience for all groups who participated in the event. The dedication and collaboration of everyone involved was exciting to see.”

“We believe this model can be highly impactful for driving healthcare innovation and creating startup companies,” continued Stinson. “First, we’re starting with real problems faced by our health systems and deploying very talented teams for solution development. And second, we’ve created an ideal collaboration with our friends at Cartwheel Startup Studio, who have a proven methodology and infrastructure for startup creation, which clearly has strong potential for Northwest Arkansas economic development.”

An Interview with Joe Sasson, MedAxiom

For our latest Healthcare Innovation Discussion, director of HealthTech Arkansas Jeff Stinson interviewed Joe Sasson, EVP of Ventures at MedAxiom.

Jeff:  HealthTech Arkansas is incredibly excited to begin the HeartX journey with MedAxiom, and we’d love for our readers to learn more about you and your organization. Please tell us about your role there.

Joe:  MedAxiom is a membership organization designed to improve the clinical, operational, and financial aspects of cardiovascular care delivery by focusing on shared data and shared expertise. Our mission is to transform cardiovascular care and improve heart health. The MedAxiom organization is divided into three primary business units, 1) Membership, 2) Care Transformation Services and 3) Ventures and Industry Partnerships. 

As the leader of the MedAxiom Ventures division, I serve a dedicated team that supports MedAxiom’s relationships with industry partners. Together we set the strategy, identify industry and marketplace needs, and innovate new ways to help our partners accelerate solution adoption for the benefit of cardiovascular programs and cardiovascular patients.

Jeff:  How has MedAxiom historically sought to help its member cardiologists and cardiology practices become more innovative?

Joe:  Innovation has always been a part of MedAxiom’s DNA. As a 20-year-old company that has never let go of its start-up mentality, MedAxiom continues to support other innovative start-ups on their journey towards expanding their impact on care. MedAxiom offers industry partners several opportunities designed to create relationships, enable the dispersion of education on new and refined technologies, and accelerate the adoption of life- and cost-saving solutions that benefit cardiovascular programs, physicians, and, most importantly patients. MedAxiom has often created low barriers for start-ups to participate in our ecosystem, and we see the HeartX Accelerator as a more formalized pathway to executing that same goal. 

Jeff:  What attracted you to this collaboration with HealthTech Arkansas, and what does MedAxiom hope to achieve with HeartX?

Joe:  Supporting start-ups and innovation through our channels and services has always been a priority for MedAxiom. Collaborating with HealthTech Arkansas provides a more comprehensive strategy with additional structure and support for innovation. HealthTech Arkansas stood out to MedAxiom due to its specific focus on cardiology-related solutions, the quality of the organizations based in Arkansas that partner with HealthTech Arkansas today, and the cultural alignment between the two organizations — which MedAxiom views as critical to the success of any endeavor. Using MedAxiom’s national platform and channels, we can work with the accelerator cohort organizations to tell their story to a national audience outside of the successes they achieve in Arkansas.

Jeff:  What are some of the trend lines you see in cardiovascular care overall in our country, and how do you see MedAxiom participating in those trends?

Joe:  The national trends in cardiovascular care must transcend innovative products and solutions. Among many other factors, new trends are driven by improvements in care guidelines, payment reform, and technological advancements that typically require ancillary products and solutions to effectuate the needed shifts in cardiovascular care. The more significant trends that have been consuming national attention involve remote patient monitoring (i.e., implantable device monitoring, ambulatory arrhythmia monitoring, and physiologic monitoring); the shift of procedures to ambulatory surgery centers; the utilization of CT to diagnose chest pain; the adoption of whole person wellness via mental and behavioral health as well as cardiac rehabilitation; and a significant focus on cost reduction and improved services for patients with conditions such as heart failure, atrial fibrillation, hypertension, and coronary artery disease. There are other trends affecting the market, yet these are a few in which we see much activity at the current time. 

These trends must be supported by technologies and solutions designed to achieve change. MedAxiom has focused its offerings such as peer benchmarking data, conference presentations, publications, webinars, podcasts, and MedAxiom Academy courses, to help cardiovascular programs navigate these trends. MedAxiom anticipates that some of the companies that enter into Heart-X will also support the attainment of optimal performance related to one or more of these trends.