Becker's Hospital Review: The Strategy Behind Cedars-Sinai Accelerator

Becker’s Hospital Review recently interviewed Anne Wellington, managing director of the Cedars-Sinai Accelerator, which helps entrepreneurs bring their innovative technology products to market.

The three-month program provides companies with $100,000 in funding, mentorship from more than 300 leading clinicians and executives, access to Cedars-Sinai, and exposure to a broad network of entrepreneurs and investors. The Cedars-Sinai Accelerator graduated its first class in 2016 and since then has had 47 external start-ups participate in five accelerator classes.

Companies that have been through the program have investors that include Amazon and Google, and all together have raised nearly $200 million in investment. More than 80 percent of the startups that have participated in the program are still active and have hired more than 375 team members collectively.

Becker’s Hospital Review asked Wellington about the strategy of the program, as well as how it has garnered its successful results.

“The Cedars-Sinai Accelerator accepts applications to the program from across the technology space; it doesn't have a particular focus area,” said Wellington. “Instead, the strategy is to look at any startup that has healthcare technologies that targets hospital or health system customers.”

Wellington added that the accelerator selects companies in part based on the priorities of the physicians and clinicians that are working with patients every day.

“We are looking for companies that can solve their issues,” Wellington said.

At the end of the three-month program, participants come together for Demo Day, where firms pitch their product with the aim of garnering funding. The latest Demo Day, held Thursday, Sept. 12 at the Wallis Annenberg Center for Performing Arts, drew an audience of about 300 that included representatives of healthcare systems, investment firms and Cedars-Sinai leaders, to hear presentations by 10 young firms.

“The potential that technology has to affect a lot of patients and to broadly improve care is really exciting,” Wellington said. “Many of the solutions that we work with through the accelerator have the potential to improve care for our patients at Cedars-Sinai, and then throughout the broader healthcare community, both in the U.S. and internationally.”

Read the complete story here.

Read more on the Cedars-Sinai blog: Demo Day Highlights Healthcare Innovation