Can Hospitals Create Better Digital Health Startups?

The startup incubation studio Aegis Ventures recently gained some important backers for its model to co-develop, invest in and deploy tech solutions that address health care’s most pressing quality, equity and cost problems.

Nine health systems, including Northwell Health, Novant Health, Ochsner Health and Stanford Health Care, recently joined the venture company’s Digital Consortium.

Together, the health systems and the private equity (PE) firm that is the venture capital division of Aegis Capital Corp. will develop startups to address health system needs. Aegis believes that health system leaders are best suited to identify opportunities for innovation.

In partnership with entrepreneurs and technologists, consortium members will co-develop an ecosystem of synergistic companies built for health systems by health systems that address core operational pain points. John Noseworthy, M.D., former president and CEO of Mayo Clinic, will chair the consortium and work closely with health system partners to leverage the respective strengths and strategic plans of each system.

Northwell and Aegis have been collaborating on this concept for three years and already have built four companies spanning patient engagement, women’s health, artificial intelligence-based diagnostics, workflow automation and emotion analytics.

The new participants in the consortium, who were selected through a rigorous evaluation program, collectively represent more than $65 billion in operating revenue and more than 300,000 employees. The consortium likely will expand in the future, John Beadle, Aegis Ventures co-founder and managing partner, recently told Fierce Healthcare.