As Sprint gears up for the second class of its mobile health accelerator program in Kansas City, it’s added a clutch of hospital and health system partners, according to a company statement. Although it had healthcare partners for its inaugural class last year, the idea is that more formalized relationships will make it easier for hospitals to convey what their needs are and for entrepreneurs to find the most relevant audience for their products.
Johns Hopkins Medicine and Mercy Research & Development became accelerator partners, joining University of Kansas Medical Center and Providence Health and Services, which were announced at the end of last year.
Managed by Techstars, the next class is scheduled to start March 9. In the statement, Techstars managing director John Fein said the health systems could provide opportunities for pilots and clinical validation, and access to healthcare experts. “We…can’t wait to see the benefits resulting from our startups working with them.”
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Techstars has been working hard to build relationships with some high-profile health systems. Last year, it developed a collaboration with Mayo Clinic as part of a new program called Techstars++. It provides graduates of its accelerator programs with the chance to work within the walls of the hospital to gain valuable experience, if their proposal is accepted.
Hospital decision makers are a notoriously tough audience for entrepreneurs to gain access. That’s why so many accelerators have gone out of their way to develop relationships with them. By facilitating introductions to administrators, clinicians, nurses and technicians, they can help entrepreneurs gain invaluable insights on challenges hospitals face, what their different workflow needs are, as well as the work culture. Entrepreneurs can develop a better understanding of whether their product or service will work, fail miserably or fall somewhere in between.
