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Johns Hopkins-Backed Healthcare AI Accelerator Now Taking Applications
An accelerator backed by Johns Hopkins University, nonprofit insurance provider CareFirst and venture capital firm Techstars is now accepting applications from AI-forward healthcare startups.
The Techstars AI Health Baltimore accelerator program officially opened on Monday, with applications being accepted through Nov. 20, 2024.
Qualifying startups will include "early-stage entrepreneurs building pathways to better care through artificial intelligence," the backers said in their announcement. Startups in the healthcare, medtech and biotech fields are invited to apply.
Those accepted will be enrolled in a 13-week in-person program that starts in March 2025 in Baltimore, Md., where Johns Hopkins and CareFirst are based. There, they'll network with mentors, investors and industry experts; develop and refine business plans; and receive "other support required to navigate the complexities of the healthcare ecosystem and regulatory environment."
The program will culminate in a Demo Day in June 2025, during which the startups will present their pitch decks for investors.
Techstars dubs itself the "world's most active pre-seed investor." Its Web site lists nearly 5,000 portfolio companies, over 600 of which are in the "health tech" category. Its launch of the Techstars AI Health Baltimore accelerator program follows similar moves by big-name tech giants like Cisco, Amazon and Microsoft, all of which are also courting AI-focused startups, though not necessarily in healthcare.
However, healthcare organizations are especially well-suited for AI-powered solutions that can help them standardize their massive volumes of siloed and unstructured medical data, a fact noted by the accelerator's managing director, Adam Phillips, in a Q&A.
"[A]ccessing currently unstructured datasets to help make better healthcare decisions, shows the potential impact of this technology," Phillips said. "A huge amount of unstructured data will come online and be made actionable when we have capable and reliable artificial agents to augment human decision-making. THAT is why Al is such a crucial focus for this accelerator. Healthcare will be one of the MOST impacted industries when Al can help bring order to unstructured data, and in a number of different ways we haven't yet considered."
More information on the Techstars AI Health Baltimore accelerator is available here.