After launching amid the pandemic, 1501 Health unveiled its incubator space to the public on Tuesday, showcasing an office designed to support startups developing new medical technologies.
The roughly 10,000-square-foot office at 1501 S. Clinton St. comes equipped with model clinics, where clinicians and founders can work together to figure out how technology can be integrated into patient care.
The equipment can also help startups understand how data can be used within a digital medical records system, so providers are not burdened with a separate data source that requires more work to review, said Pothik Chatterjee, assistant vice president of innovation and research at LifeBridge Health.
“By having all of the doctors, nurses, entrepreneurs and technology experts together in this space, they'll be able to really brainstorm together,” Chatterjee said.
Click through the gallery above to see photos of the space.
The incubator is a partnership between LifeBridge Health and Healthworx, the innovation and investment arm of health insurer CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield. The office, which is housed inside CareFirst's Canton headquarters, was originally built in 2020, and was planned to be more of a coworking space, Chatterjee said. However, the Covid-19 pandemic caused the project to change focus.
“Many of the startups are located outside of Baltimore,” Chatterjee said. “But the idea is when they're coming into town for meetings with customers or investors [or] are going to Washington, D.C., to meet with investors or regulators there, they can use 1501 Health as a hub to work out of."
LifeBridge Health and CareFirst innovation teams have also been working out of the 1501 Health space, Chatterjee said.
1501 Health held most of the programming for its first cohort online, but the space will allow the incubator's next class the chance for more informal interactions, said Emily Durfee, director of Healthworx strategy and portfolio acquisition. In-person conversations are typically less transactional than those held over Zoom as online meetings are often built around specific questions founders want answered by their 1501 Health advisers, she noted.
"Having spaces where you are able to run into and learn from unexpected conversations is going to be critical moving forward," Durfee said.
1501 Health graduated its first cohort from the program with a demo day on Tuesday, allowing each founder to present their company to possible investors. The companies included mental health care startup Even Health — who along with 1501 Health received an Inno Fire award from the Baltimore Business Journal this year — as well as BabyLiveAdvice, Live Chair Health, Pair Team and WellSet.
The first cohort tripled its venture capital funding raises over the yearlong program, Chatterjee said. As of March, for example, Even Health has raised $2 million and secured a $1.7 million U.S. Air Force contract. Each cohort member receives $100,000 along with mentorship from advisers within LifeBridge and CareFirst.
“Working with folks that had the behavioral health perspective on both the provider side and the payer side helped us understand where our solution fits in today, and how we can innovate,” Even Health founder David Black said.
The incubator also helped BabyLiveAdvice, a company that helps expecting mothers, grow to earn almost $1 million in revenue in the first quarter of 2022. The company currently works with LifeBridge's Sinai Hospital to provide prenatal care, serving 4,000 women on a weekly basis.
The second cohort, announced in March, features seven companies. The companies are mostly based outside of Baltimore, including Candoo Tech, Flowly, Frame Fertility, Health in Her Hue, Lantern, Ryse Health, and Xploro.
"It's about getting rapid feedback from experts," said Jessica Bell van der Wal, founder of Frame Fertility, which recently completed a $2.8 million seed round. "We have a cabinet of advisers that help us refine our product."
