HealthTech Arkansas Companies in the News

2023 cohort company Nanowear gets FDA clearance for AI-enabled software that allows its wearable undergarment to estimate blood pressure. Learn more here.

2022 cohort company iCardio.ai announced a strategic partnership with UltraLinQ, a major PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication Systems) software provider. The partnership combines iCardio.ai's cutting-edge automated AI tools with UltraLinQ's robust image viewer and advanced reporting platform. Learn more here.

2023 cohort company Nanowear announced that its nanotechnology-enabled wearable and software platform, SimpleSenseTM, has received FDA 510(k) clearance for a novel AI-enabled Software-as-a-Medical Device (SaMD). Learn more here

2022 cohort company Acorai received investment from CerraCap Ventures, a leading venture capital firm in healthcare innovation. The investment will boost the development and deployment of Acorai's novel Acorai Heart Monitor (AHM), which aims to solve critical challenges in heart failure management. Learn more here

2022 cohort company Acorai secured more than $4.5m in funding to finance its clinical studies and move towards regulatory approval. The round was led by Solardis Health Ventures, with participation from KHP Ventures, Carma Fund and other US investors. Significant follow-on investment was taken from existing investors from across Sweden and the EU. Learn more here

2023 cohort company MindMics was granted a patent for its cardiovascular monitoring via infrasound technology in everyday headphones. This patent marks a significant leap in the field of cardiovascular health, offering a novel, non-invasive approach to disease monitoring and management. Learn more here

2021 cohort company SoniVie announced enrollment completion in the REDUCED-1 pilot study with TIVUS™ Ultra-Sound Renal Denervation. SoniVie is developing the only platform denervation technology with active development programs in three therapeutic areas: pulmonary artery denervation for pulmonary hypertension, renal artery denervation for resistant hypertension, and total lung denervation for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease with chronic bronchitis. Learn more here

2020 cohort company Zeto achieves HITRUST risk-based, 2-year certification demonstrating the highest level of information protection assurance. Learn more here.

2023 cohort company SmartCardia has announced an exciting partnership with Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital (KDAH), Mumbai to revolutionize patient care for individuals with cardiac arrhythmia, a condition when the heartbeat is irregular due to a problem with the heart’s electrical signals. Learn more here

HealthTech Arkansas Companies in the News

2020 cohort company Astarte Medical’s chief medical officer Dr. William Hay Jr. discusses how healthcare provider organizations can turn the tide on pediatric healthcare costs – and what new digital tools and protocols may need to be in place to improve outcomes for vulnerable pediatric patients. Read more here.

2022 cohort company Acorai, a start-up medical device manufacturer from Sweden, announced its selection for a €2.3m grant with a follow-on €10m investment offer from the European Innovation Council (EIC). Only a handful of companies who apply for the EIC accelerator are successful, and Acorai was among the top applicants who received the maximum funding Amount. Read more here.  

2023 cohort company SmartCardia has announced that Dr. Jag Singh joined the company as their new Principal Medical Advisor. SmartCardia is a leading provider of an integrated cloud platform and patch for cardiac and remote patient monitoring. Read more here.

2020 cohort company Zeto, an innovative EEG brain monitoring company, has announced its inaugural participation at the Neuroscience 2023 conference hosted by the Society for Neuroscience and has reaffirmed its commitment to increasing accessibility to brain monitoring by sponsoring up to three EEG clinical trials in 2024. These trials aim to support advanced clinical research and bring innovative applications closer to full real-world implementation. Read more here.

2022 cohort company iCardio.ai has announced it has joined Butterfly Garden, a digital health company transforming care through the power of portable, semiconductor-based ultrasound technology and intuitive software. Under the agreement, iCardio.ai plans to develop and deploy its suite of cardiac ultrasound AI tools for use with Butterfly's single-probe, whole-body handheld ultrasound system, subject to applicable approvals and authorizations. Read more here.

2018 cohort company Lapovations announced a national pricing agreement with CommonSpirit Health, one of the United States’ largest nonprofit healthcare systems. This agreement establishes a national pricing framework and paves the way for widespread adoption of AbGrab, an innovative device designed to offer a more reliable and less invasive method for lifting the abdominal wall during laparoscopic surgeries. Read more here.

Results from an ongoing prospective clinical study conducted by Scripps Clinic indicate that 2023 cohort company MindMics' non-invasive infrasonic hemodynography (IH) technology can detect aortic stenosis by capturing in-ear acoustic vibrations throughout the cardiac cycles. Read more here.

HealthTech Arkansas Selected as Inaugural Member of ARPA-H Investor Catalyst Hub Spoke Network

HealthTech Arkansas was selected as an inaugural spoke for the Investor Catalyst Hub, a regional hub of ARPANET-H, a nationwide health innovation network launched by the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H).

Based in the Greater Boston area and managed by VentureWell, the Investor Catalyst Hub aims to accelerate the commercialization of practical, accessible biomedical solutions. It utilizes an innovative hub-and-spoke model designed to reach a wide range of nonprofit organizations and Minority-Serving Institutions, with the ultimate aim of delivering scalable healthcare outcomes for all Americans.

HealthTech Arkansas joins a dynamic nationwide network of organizations aligned to ARPA-H’s overarching mission to improve health outcomes through the following research focus areas: health science futures, proactive health, scalable solutions, and resilient systems. Investor Catalyst Hub spokes represent a broad spectrum of expertise, geographic diversity, and community perspectives.

“Our spoke network represents a rich and representative range of perspectives and expertise,” said Mark Marino, Vice President of Growth Strategy and Development for VentureWell and Project Director for the Investor Catalyst Hub. “Our spokes comprise a richly diverse network that will be instrumental in ensuring that equitable health solutions reach communities across every state and tribal nation.”

As an Investor Catalyst Hub spoke, HealthTech Arkansas gains access to potential funding and flexible contracting for faster award execution compared to traditional government contracts. Spoke membership also offers opportunities to provide input on ARPA-H challenge areas and priorities, along with access to valuable networking opportunities and a robust resource library.

The spoke network will continue to grow as The Investor Catalyst Hub expands its efforts, with applications being selected on a rolling basis. Interested organizations can visit https://investorcatalysthub.org/ to learn more or submit a membership application.

HEARTX ACCELERATOR ANNOUNCES FIVE STARTUP COMPANIES SELECTED FOR THE 2023 PROGRAM

HeartX, powered by HealthTech Arkansas and MedAxiom along with eleven leading cardiology practices in Arkansas and around the country — has selected the five startup healthcare companies that will participate in the 2023 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 2023 HeartX program are:

Flosonics Medical, Canada

Flosonics Medical produces the FloPatch, a wireless, wearable Doppler ultrasound that directly assesses carotid arterial pulse within seconds. Data from the FloPatch provides a window to the left ventricle, which helps clinicians determine when a patient is no longer fluid-responsive, avoiding harmful and ineffective IV fluids. Learn more at flosonicsmedical.com

Happitech, Netherlands

Happitech offers an accessible and scalable solution for identifying patients at risk of atrial fibrillation (AF). By placing a finger on a smartphone's camera for 90 seconds, individuals can screen for AF with a sensitivity and specificity similar to the standard of care. This is well suited for at-risk underserved populations, the elderly, and low-income individuals promoting improved health equity. Learn more at happitech.com

MindMics, Massachusetts, United States

MindMics delivers heart monitoring through low-frequency acoustical vibrations detected in the ear canal with technology embedded in earbuds and hearing aids. The results are highly accurate regardless of skin tone, skin thickness, and body mass. The sound-based technology has been clinically validated in collaboration with leading researchers and world-renowned medical institutions. Learn more at mindmics.com

Nanowear, New York, United States

Nanowear is an AI-based remote diagnostics tool utilizing proprietary patented cloth-based nanotechnology. The nanosensors capture over 85 medical-grade biomarkers directly from the skin, enabling a closed-loop digital system for specific machine-learning algorithms built on terabytes of unique human data. Learn more at nanowearinc.com

SmartCardia, Switzerland

SmartCardia produces the 7L Patch, a revolutionary platform and 7-Lead ECG patch for cardiology and remote patient monitoring (RPM) that is a breakthrough 7/14 day patch offering real-time 7-Lead ECG and vitals with SaaS. A single patch serves multiple service types: Mobile Cardiac Telemetry, RPM, Holter, Extended Holter, and Event Monitoring. Learn more at smartcardia.com.

“We are excited to reveal the 2023 HeartX cohort companies, which were hand-selected by our participating cardiology practices,” said Jeff Stinson, director of HealthTech Arkansas. “With MedAxiom’s help, we’ve been able to grow the HeartX program to international prominence. Through the guaranteed clinical engagement and the national visibility provided through MedAxiom’s national network of cardiology practices, we’re now attracting the very best cardiovascular startups from around the world. We’re very grateful for this opportunity.”  

“The cardiovascular industry has been at the forefront of healthcare innovation and new technologies and solutions are arising at a rapid pace. We’re excited to partner with five companies that are transforming cardiovascular care around the world as part of the 2023 HeartX program. While the heart of the program remains in Arkansas, we’ve expanded clinical trial sites nationwide to advance innovations that promise to improve care delivery. With two cohorts and ten companies now a part of HeartX, MedAxiom and HealthTech Arkansas are committed to expanding the portfolio to provide revolutionary solutions to patients, providers and programs.” said Joe Sasson, PhD, MedAxiom’s chief commercial officer and executive vice president of Ventures. 

Representatives from each of the eleven cardiology practices, plus representatives from HealthTech Arkansas and MedAxiom, interviewed applicants and selected companies with technologies that have the potential to advance cardiovascular innovation and cardiac care at their respective 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 and clinical studies in the HeartX program.

More information about HeartX can be found at HeartXAccelerator.com. 

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 American College of Cardiology Company, is the cardiovascular community’s premier source for organizational performance solutions. MedAxiom is transforming cardiovascular care by combining the knowledge and power of hundreds of cardiovascular organization members, thousands of administrators, clinicians and revenue cycle experts, and dozens of 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

HealthTech Arkansas Cohort Companies in the News

2022 cohort company Echo IQ has partnered with Cassling, a company that will act as a sales agent for Echo IQ’s EchoSolv software. EchoSolv is a proprietary artificial intelligence clinical decision support platform that supports cardiology practitioners in diagnosing structural heart disease. Read more here.  

Tracy Warren, CEO of 2020 cohort company Astarte Medical and a former venture investor, talks the best data, the pace of tech innovation, curbing the all-time high in premature births, and best practices to prevent lapses and errors in the neonatal intensive care unit. Read more here.

2022 cohort company Acorai has been accepted to the Cedars-Sinai Accelerator. Acorai develops a device for heart failure management through noninvasive intracardiac pressure monitoring to help reduce hospitalizations and readmissions. Read more here.  

2020 cohort company Astarte, a clinical intelligence company focused on protocol-driven pediatric care, has partnered with Virginia-based Carilion Children’s Hospital to coordinate care within its neonatal intensive care unit. Read more here.  

2022 cohort company Echo IQ has its first sale of the company’s EchoSolv™ diagnostic software for aortic stenosis identification to an Australian hospital. Read more here.

2022 cohort company Acorai announced that the U.S. FDA has granted Breakthrough Device Designation for Acorai's Heart Monitor, a device for the non-invasive estimation of diastolic pulmonary artery pressure (dPAP), systolic pulmonary artery pressure (sPAP), and mean pulmonary artery pressure (mPAP) in patients with Stage C Heart Failure who have been referred for hemodynamic monitoring. Read more here.  

2022 cohort company Acorai announced the initiation of a global clinical trial with the enrollment of its first patient in London, UK. Read more here.  

2022 cohort company Mediwhale Inc. developed Reti-CKD, a predictive risk score for CKD, the first comprehensive AI diagnostic solution for CKD using retinal imaging. The process takes about 30 seconds and involves a retinal scan with color fundus imaging. Read more here.  

2022 cohort company Echo IQ has announced plans to release six new cardiac decision-support solutions, significantly expanding its EchoSolv cardiology platform between November 2023 and January 2024. Read more here.  

2020 cohort company Astarte, a clinical intelligence company focused on protocol-driven pediatric care, has been busy adjusting its digital health platform to provide more assistance with monitoring and alerting medical staff to the patients who face specific risks. Read more here.  

2020 cohort company Vena Vitals is a winner of Orange County’s 2023 Pitch. Launch. Grow. competition and will be awarded a 1-year sponsored lab bench at University Lab Partners, the premier wet lab incubator in Irvine, California. Read more here.  

2018 cohort company Lapovations has been awarded a $500K Phase IIB Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) matching grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Read more here.

2018 cohort company Day Zero Diagnostics has completed a $16M round of financing. This latest financing brings the total raised by Day Zero Diagnostics to $49M in venture capital funding and over $18M in non-dilutive funding. Read more here.  

2020 cohort company Astarte, is forming a joint venture with Tiny Health, makers of gut microbiome tests for babies and expecting parents. The partners have agreed to develop a clinical-facing technology solution to support gut health for preterm and critically ill infants receiving care in the neonatal ICU. Read more here.  

HealthTech Arkansas Cohort Companies in the News

2020 cohort company Astarte recently wrote a guest article for Healthcare IT Today about  how tech can optimize protocol-driven care for children with medical complexity. Read more here.  

2021 cohort company Genesis has landed its second key clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration — its next step in pursuing full market authorization as part of its goal to better treat millions of cardiac patients. Read more here.

2022 cohort company Mediwhale closed a Series A funding round of $9 million with investors from the United States and South Korea. Read more here.  

2020 cohort company Zeto plans to leverage its platform technology to improve access and quality to medical EEG testing and to enable and improve adjacent biomedical research and clinical trials. Read more here.

2020 cohort company Zeto is the recipient of the "Best New Technology Solution for Neurology" award in the 7th annual Awards program conducted by MedTech Breakthrough. Congratulations! Read more here.  

2020 cohort company Astarte’s cofounder Tammi Jantzen wrote an article for HIT Consultant about unleashing the power of protocols in critical care. Read more here.

2019 cohort company OMNY Health and Datavant have announced a collaboration agreement to accelerate the delivery of de-identified, real-world data (RWD) from provider organizations to clinical researchers and drug developers. Read more here

2022 cohort company Mediwhale is the winner of the CKD Challenge, a competition to find innovative technological solutions to reduce the burden of chronic kidney disease (CKD), a severe, progressive, and unknown disease that affects 15% of the Spanish population. Read more here.  

HealthTech Arkansas Cohort Companies In The News

Astarte, 2020 Cohort

Astarte Medical, a clinical intelligence company, announced it signed a contract with UVA Children’s to implement its NICUtrition software platform to analyze and understand feeding metrics and milestones and the corresponding growth outcomes for preterm infants in the neonatal ICU (NICU). 

EchoIQ, 2022 Cohort

EchoIQ has moved closer to the commercial introduction of its cloud-based solution for the retrospective and real-time identification of guideline-defined severe aortic stenosis during the period. Steady progress was also made toward FDA certification. Read more here.  

EchoIQ demonstrated positive results in two clinical trials and positioned itself to see initial commercial uptake of the cloud-based product later this year. Read more here.  

Genetesis, 2021 Cohort

Genetesis, Inc., the leader in biomagnetic cardiac imaging solutions, announced the appointment of three new members to the executive leadership team who will oversee and execute key aspects of commercialization and clinical research for its flagship solution, CardioFlux. Read more here.  

iCardio.ai, 2022 Cohort

Techstars announced that iCardio.ai has been selected for participation in their 2023 accelerator program. Read more here.

iCardio shared that their scientific research was accepted for publication in the Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography (JASE). Read more here.  

Lapovations, 2018 Cohort

Fayetteville medical device company Lapovations closed an oversubscribed Series A funding round led by investments from multiple angel investors and groups. Read more here.  

Lapovations has attracted more than $3.5 million in dilutive and non-dilutive investment and has 50 independent sales representatives operating in 18 states. Read more here.  

Mediwhale, 2022 Cohort

Mediwhale, the AI-empowered health diagnostics company that uses retina scans to diagnose future cardiac and kidney disorder risk quickly and easily, has been accepted into the 2023 cohort of StartX. Read more here.  

Mediwhale was selected for the MedTech Accelerator. Read more here.  

MediWhale received nice coverage on CNBC: A 26-year-old founded a medical startup — the same year he lost almost half his vision. Read more here.

Movn Health, 2021 Cohort

Movn Health, a leading virtual cardiac rehabilitation and prevention provider, announced that it is launching single sign-on authentication for its entire software platform. Read more here.  

Movn Health, a virtual cardiac rehabilitation and prevention provider, announced that it has successfully passed the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) Service Organization Control (SOC) 2 Examination and has received the SOC 2 Type 2 report. This affirms the company’s strong data-security protocols. Read more here.  

Movn Health was selected as a 2022 UCSF Rosenman ADAPT Program (ADAPT) awardee. ADAPT accelerates developing, scaling, and adopting novel technologies that tackle the most pressing healthcare disparities by pairing early-stage companies with large industry players. Read more here.  

OMNY, 2019 Cohort

OMNY, one of our 2019 cohort companies, has partnered with Atropos Health, a leader in generating personalized, real-world evidence at the point and pace of care. Read more here.  

Sonivie, 2021 Cohort

Sonivie, a medical device company developing a proprietary solution to treat hypertension, announced the completion of a $60 million series C round financing. The financing was led by Andera Partners, with participation from Supernova Invest and Omega Funds. Read more here.  

Zeto, 2020 Cohort

Zeto, Inc., an innovative EEG brain monitoring company, announced the integration of FDA-cleared seizure detection and trending algorithms developed by Encevis, into its EEG platform. Read more here.

HEALTHTECH ARKANSAS AND KX ADVISORS PARTNER TO PROVIDE GROWTH STRATEGY SERVICES TO THE BIOAR TRIAL ACCELERATOR PARTICIPANTS

HealthTech Arkansas and Kx Advisors have partnered to provide support to the biotherapeutics startup companies participating in the BioAR Trial accelerator program. Kx Advisors provides advisory services to help leading pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical technology, digital health, and diagnostics companies fully capitalize on product opportunities, navigate the environment with greater certainty, and maximize the lifetime commercial value of their portfolios.

As part of the partnership, companies selected for the BioAR Trial cohort will participate in a virtual seminar on growth strategies presented by Kx Advisors, in addition to one-on-one follow-up sessions.

“We’re very excited to bring the formidable skills and experiences of the Kx team to bear for BioAR Trial cohort companies,” said Jeff Stinson, director of HealthTech Arkansas. “Personalized, high-level advisement on growth strategies is another example of how we add value to early-stage companies developing advanced biotherapeutics.”

“We’re thrilled to collaborate in this partnership with HealthTech Arkansas to support the advancement of innovative biotherapeutics and the hope they provide to patients, families, and their healthcare providers,” said Sean Vander Linde, Partner at Kx Advisors. “Among Kx’s strengths is our strategic advice supporting companies with clinical-stage assets. Partnerships such as these allow us to contribute to setting these organizations and their valuable innovations up for success.”

BioAR Trial was created 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. This effort aligns with HealthTech Arkansas’s mission to identify and bring superior healthcare technologies to Arkansas to benefit the state’s providers.

“We are excited to partner with Kx Advisors, whose guidance will be invaluable to our cohort companies,” said Jahan Ali, Vice President of Business Development at SymBiosis. 

Applications for BioAR Trial are currently open through February 28, 2023. More information and a link to the application can be found at bioarkansas.co.

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 KX ADVISORS

For over 40 years, Kx Advisors (operating as the healthcare consulting practice of Kaiser Associates) have provided advisory services to help leading pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical technology companies fully capitalize on product opportunities, navigate the environment with greater certainty, and maximize the lifetime commercial value of their portfolios. The Kx approach establishes the required fact base to vet critical decisions and brings together data from disparate sources to develop holistic strategies. With offices in Washington D.C., London, and Boston, Kx Advisors possesses the unique ability to generate global insights from physicians, thought leaders, patients, competitors, partners, regulators, suppliers, and payers. Learn more at KxAdvisors.com 

ABOUT SYMBIOSIS CAPITAL MANAGEMENT, LLC

SymBiosis is an investment firm focused on advancing biotherapeutics innovations for serious and life-threatening diseases. The firm invests in groundbreaking medicines across disease area, financing stage, and geography, with a focus on programs in, or about to enter, human trials. SymBiosis currently manages a portfolio of more than 30 investments and has significant, long-term capital commitments to fund future investments. For more information, please visit www.symbiosis.vc or follow us on LinkedIn.