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Demo Day Highlights the Future of Healthcare Innovation

Cedars-Sinai Accelerator Powered by Techstars Demo Day

For the past 3 months, 10 health tech companies from around the world have been in startup bootcamp as part of the third cohort of the Cedars-Sinai Accelerator powered by Techstars.

Spending time with Cedars-Sinai mentors and executive leadership, the cohort worked to rapidly develop and iterate their innovations, all with the shared goal of solving existing healthcare problems and bringing innovation to areas that need improvement.

Yesterday, the teams gathered to highlight their progress and pitch their ideas to investors as part of Demo Day, which marks the end of the program for the cohort. The room was filled with investors, mentors, and leaders in the healthcare field.


"I was really impressed by the passion coming from these companies."


Chosen from over 500 applicants, the 10 companies represent a wide variety of products ranging from mobile apps to a unique blood draw device.

"We've got companies from various stages and backgrounds, from different parts of the world," said Omkar Kulkarni, director of the accelerator program. "We've really been able to bring meaningful pilots with this cohort."

First to take the stage was Aiva, a voice-powered OS that allows hospital patients to enjoy hands-free access to info and entertainment, as well as send requests to their caregivers. They were followed by Carescriptions by Seremedi, a mobile patient-care solution that helps equip home caregivers with tools and education.



Presentations continued with pitches from Gyant, a mobile app that uses AI to help doctors diagnose, prescribe, and recommend treatment options; CancerAid, one of the top apps for cancer patients, providing individualized cancer therapy information and valuable resources; and Invio, showing off a compliant content management system that replaces the need for paper and regulatory binders in clinical trials.

Cedars-Sinai Demo Day

Fernando Lopez of Lumeon demonstrates the company's platform at Demo Day

Following Invio, the audience heard from LumeonChoiceMap, and NarrativeDX. Rounding out the pitches were Sway Health, an app that sends patients reminders for preventative cancer screenings; and Tasso, presenting HemoLink, a virtually painless blood collection device that allows patients to draw their own blood samples for lab testing.

"I was really impressed by the passion coming from these companies," said Dr. Richard Riggs, Cedars-Sinai vice president and chief medical informatics officer. "We can never underestimate that passion, which can be married with innovation to create new products to bring changes to healthcare."


"I think this is the most exceptional program in the healthcare space. We got so much support from Cedars-Sinai mentors; they were so willing to help and tell us what was working and what wasn't."


In addition to 3 months of valuable guidance from Cedars-Sinai staff and leadership as well as workspace next to the medical center, each company received $120,000 in seed money. Of the 10 companies, 9 are also leaving the program with contracts to continue working with Cedars-Sinai.

"I think this is the most exceptional program in the healthcare space," said Kim Bond Evans, CEO of Carescriptions by Seremdi. "We got so much support from Cedars-Sinai mentors; they were so willing to help and tell us what was working and what wasn't."

The Cedars-Sinai Accelerator powered by Techstars was first launched at Cedars-Sinai in 2016 with a class of 11 companies. The next cohort will begin in summer 2018; the program will start accepting applications in January.