HealthTech Arkansas partners with Center for Advancing Innovation

HealthTech Arkansas and the Center for Advancing Innovation (CAI) will 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 with exponential impact.

“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.

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 at this link.