“We want to work with young startups to solve healthcare problems where we know, as good as we are, we’re not going to be able to solve them alone,” Northwestern Medicine CIO Doug King told Becker’s. “And our thesis is we can make all of [these companies] better by working with us.”
The 11-hospital system is partnering with Techstars, a startup studio and venture capital firm that helped narrow down the class to six from hundreds of applicants. The finalists focus on billing and coding, workforce and supply chain management, EHR automation, and AI for cardiovascular care.
The 13-week mentorship program takes place at Northwestern Medicine’s Mansueto Innovation Institute in Chicago and concludes with a pitch day for investors and healthcare leaders. Northwestern also provides a small investment in exchange for equity in the companies.
“We put out an ask to people across the health system: ‘Does anyone want to mentor these companies?'” Mr. King said. “These young companies are now going to be working with seasoned experts within their space. … Eventually, we’re going to have a better product on both sides of the aisle. It’s a two-way door. It’s not just us with them. We also can and will learn from them.”
Northwestern hopes to continue the program in future years, taking lessons learned from other health systems with startup accelerators.
“Northwestern has a lot of capability, and historically we have kept that insular and focused on our patients,” Mr. King said. ‘What we’ve realized over the past several years is innovation is a key element to us as a health system, us as an industry and really as a nation, being successful with taking care of our aging populations.”