Ten new startups are ready to disrupt healthcare—in a good way. Cedars-Sinai has selected these companies to join the third cohort of the Cedars-Sinai Accelerator Powered by Techstars, an incubator program designed to help healthcare startups turn ideas into breakthroughs that can improve patient care globally.

Arriving from around the world, the companies will participate in the 3-month program to hone their ideas and develop their products. Each company will receive valuable mentoring from Cedars-Sinai physicians and leadership, as well as $120,000 in seed money. They will also share a communal office called the "Innovation Space," where ideas can be shared and explored collectively.

The startups are:

• Aiva - Aiva is building a voice assistant platform for clinical environments. Leveraging a voice assistant, Aiva will intelligently process a patient's request and automatically route the request to the correct care team member on the caregiver's mobile device.
• CancerAid - CancerAid is an app for oncology patients and their caregivers to provide individualized cancer therapy information and resources. The app aims to offer patients specific clinical information about their treatment, help with identification of appropriate clinical trials, and streamline the referral process to those caring for the patient.
• ChoiceMap - ChoiceMap is building a tool to help clinicians and patients engage in shared decision-making about treatment options. Its software personalizes recommendations based on each patient's clinical condition and personal preferences and provides providers a tool to best communicate and engage patients.
• GYANT - GYANT uses machine learning and AI to offer patients a triage tool that leads from symptoms to information to recommended next steps. Using a conversational agent, either through messaging or voice-enabled technology, GYANT uses clinically validated triage-protocols to ensure patients have immediate access to information and can appropriately access the right level of care.
• Invio - Invio is a cloud-based content management platform for managing clinical trial documents and workflows that replaces paper subject and regulatory binders. Regulatory documents can be distributed, controlled, and collected within Invio, helping to ensure accuracy and completeness.
• Lumeon - Lumeon utilizes context-aware automation to engage patients and physicians to drive adherence to protocols particularly for post hospital discharge. Lumeon's Care Pathway Management platform allows hospitals to create their own end-to-end workflows that use digital protocols to control all processes throughout the patient journey, from appointment generation to follow-up.
• NarrativeDX - NarrativeDx is an artificial intelligence platform specifically for analyzing patient experience. Utilizing a cloud-based, HIPAA-compliant, healthcare-specific natural language processing and machine learning platform, NarrativeDx collects, analyzes, and visualizes unstructured patient feedback from internal and external sources.
• CareScriptions by Seremedi - Seremedi has launched CareScriptions, a mobile-based care coordination platform that helps care managers remotely monitor high-risk patients, and that connects the patient and family with all members of their care team after hospital discharge. The technology includes tracking for patient reported outcomes and a telehealth component that allows patients to connect with care managers using video-messaging.
• Sway Health - Sway Health has developed software to enable providers to deliver evidence-based preventive behavioral counseling, first focusing on tobacco/smoking cessation. It helps providers screen patients when they check into a clinic or schedule a visit; send that patient a digital survey to collect information on their behavior prior to the physician encounter; enable the provider to deliver simple, personalized behavioral counseling and medication management at the point of care; and ensure providers get paid for preventative services by automating documentation and billing in the EHR.
• Tasso - Tasso has created HemoLink, a device that uses microfluidic technology and allows patients to collect their own blood sample—enough blood to allow third-party labs to run a broad range of diagnostic tests.

"We launched this program in 2015 so we could help entrepreneurs bring innovative technology to our providers and patients faster and more efficiently," says Omkar Kulkarni, director of the accelerator program. "We're really excited to start our third round and see how much this next class will accomplish in the next 90 days."

At the end of the program, the companies will showcase their work and pitch their products to investors as part of Demo Day. While they all will leave with invaluable experience, some also will sign agreements to keep working with Cedars-Sinai to bring their innovations to patients and staff.