Six burgeoning health care businesses from Houston and Dallas, Tulsa, Boulder, Colorado, Alexandria, Virginia and Palo Alto, California, were prize winners in the recent Start Up Health in Shreveport.
It was a first step for new businesses that have set their sights on treatments ranging from a new way of detecting infection to a new generation of eye drops for pink eye.
The six best innovations were plucked from 89 health and medical ideas that came from businesses located in 27 states and four foreign countries, an “amazing” thing, Ochsner LSU Health CEO David Callecod said. For five years now, Callecod has been part of the Startup Prize: Health as both an investor judge and an expert, there to determine which ideas merit support and to help translate the often-technical medical terms to the other investor judges.
The number of referrals from health and medical business incubators around the country is continuing to grow, he said.
“I think the amazing thing is that every year the folks that make it to our finals not only have viable products but have the ability to really make a difference in health care. So it has made the decisions each and every year get harder and harder in terms of who the winners are.”
The 2026 winners, OmniNano Pharmaceuticals of Houston and KOM Analytics of Tulsa, focused on pancreatic cancer treatment and a new way for small to mid-size health care organizations to collect and use data.
“It’s an opportunity for our state to really attract some of this innovation to land here in Louisiana and continue to grow and help impact the health of our state,” said Startup Prize Director Melissa Brannan of the Shreveport competition.
Startup Prize was joined in their role by Louisiana Economic Development through LA.IO, the state’s innovation strategy. Also in the room were representatives of angel and family funds, venture and equity capital, as well as an intellectual property attorney and risk manager.
2026 Startup Prize: Health’s winners, Tammy Torkelson of KOM Analytics of Tulsa, and Leslie Sloan of OmniNano Pharmaceuticals of Houston.
“One thing that’s really interesting about Startup Prizes, even though we are anchored in Louisiana and we have a lot of relationships and strong things here in our state, we are national in scope. So that gives the ability for investors who are here in the area and founders here in the area to kind of tap into that national network,” Brannan said.
That flows both ways, she stressed, in bringing businesses to Louisiana that otherwise might not be here. One of the past winners, the Colorado-based JuraHealth, has expanded into the state.
$10,000 is just a start
The $10,000 awards given to OmniNano and KOM were not “a massive amount of money,” acknowledges Brannan. “But the big prize is that potential and that’s what’s in that room, that potential for investment, potential to access those partnerships, to be in the right room with the right people at the right time.”
Ochsner’s Callecod said there is another big benefit for the companies. “This competition is so special because it gives the (startup) founder an opportunity to spend quality time with judges and mentors that are experts in their fields,” he said. “There’s no other competition that gives people the time and the attention that we do to these founders.”
For business owners who are just putting their products out there, the feedback can be invaluable, said Brannan. “It’s an opportunity for these founders to really understand what investors are looking for, the questions they’re asking,” and it gives them the ability to think through their go-to-market and exit strategies, as well as their path through regulatory requirements.
“That’s what this room is really all about,” she said. “And what’s cool is it’s a room of people that want to see these founders succeed at the end of the day, too.”
