The new Steel Works Health Accelerator has announced its first cohort of six startups. Participants range from Voice-IT, which uses artificial intelligence to better communicate patient pain, to BreezMed, a platform to help doctors get prior authorizations from insurance companies for medicine or procedures.
The pre-seed companies will participate in the pilot for the Steel Works 16-week educational program. Over that time, they will learn how to raise seed funds and find customers in the complex world of health care.
Here are the cohort participants:
- Elizabeth Beam and Tim Crane with RedSentrix, working on powered air purifying respirators (PAPR).
- Ashok Puri and Ron Kreuger with Deep Health Diagnostics, using artificial intelligence to diagnose macular edema, a serious eye condition that leads to blindness.
- Ed O’Leary with Aprendo Cardiovascular Solutions, a platform to train medical professionals to do coronary angiography, a procedure where wires or tubes are guided through blood vessels.
- Stephen Salzbrenner and Chris Henkenius with Breezmed, which helps doctors navigate the complicated prior authorization requirements from insurance companies that can delay or deny life-saving medicine and care.
- Marcia Shade with Voice-IT, giving patients artificial intelligence tools to more clearly explain their pain to medical professionals.
- Sheila Fields with RxNex Solutions, automating antibiograms, which are tests for antibiotic resistance used to monitor health care spaces and make decisions about antibiotic use.
Announced in January, Steel Works is a joint venture between entrepreneurship support firm CQuence Health, the tech transfer organization UNeMed and the startup incubator UNeTech Institute.
The partnership aims to develop a strong medtech and healthtech startup ecosystem to keep companies growing in Nebraska. A second cohort will take applications in the summer.
“Just a few short months ago, the Steel Works Health Accelerator was only an idea on paper — and now we’re on the verge of launching our first cohort and welcoming groundbreaking health tech startups,” said Tyler Scherr, the licensing specialist and business development manager at UNeMed, in a statement.
“There’s absolutely no way we could have moved this quickly from vision to reality without the exceptional partnership and unwavering commitment from our collaborators,” Scherr said. “Their expertise, shared vision, and tireless teamwork turned what could have taken years into a matter of months.”
Kirk Zeller, a longtime medical devices entrepreneur, will also serve as the resident mentor for the Steel Works cohort. The accelerator program is actively recruiting mentors and advisors to support its cohorts.
“Kirk’s been a tireless champion of Nebraska life sciences innovation and a longtime friend of the (NU System),” Scherr said. “He understood what we were trying to do and immediately connected with the mission.”
Lev Gringauz is a Report for America corps member who writes about corporate innovation and workforce development for Silicon Prairie News.
