Healthcare startup accelerator, Opportunity Health, announces 2021 cohort; joins Global Accelerator Network (GAN)

Lafayette, LA—Opportunity Health (OH), Acadiana’s healthcare-focused startup accelerator program, welcomes seven companies to their 2021 cohort. These startups were recruited nation-wide for their innovative solutions to improve care, reduce costs, and create new efficient approaches to problems within the medical industry. The seven startups chosen to participate in the program will receive access to c-level healthcare industry leaders who are willing to open their facilities’ doors to test innovative products/services, mentor startups and potentially invest to create smart partnerships.

Dr. Henry Chu, Interim Director of the Louisiana Center for Health Innovation leads the initiative to have University of Louisiana at Lafayette (UL Lafayette) faculty and staff work directly with the startups. He said, “The partnership is a win-win for everyone. Faculty mentors will increase exposure by networking with local and national healthcare professionals, identifying potential new funding opportunities such as grants, research, and developing product commercialization. Students will explore entrepreneurship, learn new skills, and network for great job opportunities. UL Lafayette's research program fully supports healthcare innovation, entrepreneurship, and stands behind its mission to conduct 'Research for a Reason'.”

Not only will participating companies gain access to Opportunity Health mentors and resources, but this year OH is joining the Global Accelerator Network (GAN) — a network of the most respected accelerators around the world. The network allows communities to connect with subject matter experts and mentors that are on the forefront of technology.

"We're thrilled that Opportunity Health is joining the GAN community,” said Patrick Riley, CAN CEO. “Over the last decade, GAN Accelerators have supported over 17,000 startups, with the large majority of those businesses still operating today and with a collective valuation of $8.5B. We are huge believers in the mission of Opportunity Health and are incredibly impressed by the background, skills, and expertise of its management team. Without a doubt, the companies going through Opportunity Health's program are in great hands and poised for success."

Participating startups in the program include:

• Crosscope (Mountain View, CA) is a medical artificial intelligence (AI) software company building flexible digital pathology workflows and AI-based clinical decision support tools for automating histopathology analysis for more accurate and efficient cancer diagnosis
• General Genomics (Midland, TX) is a bioinformatics company harnessing the power of AI and machine learning (ML) to build a platform (Curo46) using algorithms on genetic markers, healthy history, and medical information to determine an individual’s health risks, appropriate preventative measures, customized treatment programs and more.
• Kinnos’ (Brooklyn, NY) colorizing platform, Highlight®, colors bleach and bleach wipes a vivid blue to let us see our disinfection, instantly improving users' ability to correctly cover the entire surface being disinfected.
• NEVAP (San Jose, CA) makes breathing tubes that remove pathogens during mechanical ventilation, reducing time on mechanical ventilation, the cost of treatment, and mortality in critically ill patients.
• Prep Tech (Lafayette, LA) is a Louisiana-based medical device company with two product lines — ULTRAPREP streamlines/reduces OR time and ISOCUBE protects healthcare professionals and hospital visitors from COVID contamination.
• Protean BioDiagnostics (Orlando, FL) is an innovative precision medicine diagnostic company with a focus on accelerating access to precision cancer treatments through their Oncology MAPS™ system.
• SafeBVM (Chesterfield, MO) minimizes unsafe manual ventilation with resuscitation bags and its subsequent complications with near-ventilator precision, making emergency ventilation patient-centric.

The community will have an opportunity to watch these startups compete for up to $30,000 in non-dilutive cash prizes at the 4th annual Get Started Medical Pitch powered by Cox Business, a Shark Tank-style pitch competition. Get Started Medical will be a featured event of Innovate South 2021. Registration for the conference and related events will be available in October.

Opportunity Health is made possible through the support of University of Louisiana at Lafayette (UL), Opportunity Machine, Lafayette Economic Development Authority (LEDA), Cox Business, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana, VieMed, CGI, Acadian Companies, LHC Group, Ochsner Lafayette General, Tides Medical, Innovation Ochsner, Louisiana Center for Health Innovation (LCHI), and Louisiana Economic Development (LED).

To learn more about becoming an Opportunity Health ally, please contact Katherine Nebel, katherine@opportunitymachine.org.

For more information about Opportunity Health, visit InnovateSouth.org/opportunity-health/.