Over the course of three days in January, more than 400 people—representing thirty-nine countries and seventy-seven institutions—descended on Yale for a hackathon: a concentrated effort of creation, collaboration, and competition. This hackathon’s theme was “The Invisible Infrastructure of Health,” and the grand prize winner was a project called Reclaimant, which would automate insurance claim appeals for small mental health practices. Other winners included an AI platform for improving translation services for patients with limited English proficiency and a support platform for assisting patients undergoing dialysis at home.
The hackathon was the first official event put on by HealthTech Works, a new digital health accelerator at Yale launched late last year. Bringing together leaders from Yale’s schools of medicine, public health, and engineering, the initiative spans broad domains of health. The overarching goal is to bring innovations, inventions, and new drugs to patients quickly and efficiently. HealthTech Works operates under the auspices of Yale Ventures, which seeks to support entrepreneurship and innovation at Yale.
HealthTech Works is generously funded by the Morse Family Foundation. Robert Morse ’77, his wife Stacey, and their four children collectively represent two generations and six degrees across Yale College and the Yale School of Medicine. Additional generous support for the accelerator came from Indra Nooyi ’80 MBA and Raj Nooyi, Faiz Kayyem ’85, and Richard Gliklich ’83.
“This is an exciting step in Yale’s growing innovation ecosystem,” says Scott Strobel, Yale’s provost and the Henry Ford II Professor of Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry. “By bringing together cutting-edge research across our medical, public health, and engineering communities, HealthTech Works is creating new pathways for faculty and students to apply their discoveries to solutions that improve and save lives.”
HealthTech Works builds on the foundation of Yale’s Center for Biomedical Innovation and Technology (CBIT), which for more than a decade has fostered student innovation, clinical hackathons, and early-stage startup mentorship. With the launch of HealthTech Works, CBIT will formally transition into this new accelerator, ensuring its mission evolves to meet the commercialization needs of Yale’s health innovators. The hackathon, originally a CBIT event, represents the way that HealthTech Works continues the existing efforts at Yale in the health accelerator space.
Mentorship, Support, and Connections
HealthTech Works will offer mentorship and advice to faculty to help bring their innovations to the patients who need them. The most promising projects will also receive grants to fund prototyping and deployment, along with assistance raising additional venture capital and other funding.
“There is vast potential for advancements in AI and other technologies to improve the speed and reduce the cost of developing new therapies and diagnostics, improve the quality and accessibility of healthcare, and address urgent public health needs,” says Josh Geballe ’97, ’02 MBA, the senior associate provost for entrepreneurship and innovation and the managing director of Yale Ventures. “HealthTech Works will accelerate the translation of cutting-edge Yale research into new startup companies that can address these opportunities to improve human health globally.”
Students will benefit from the new accelerator through access to experiential learning and the chance to work on projects that will see real-world deployment. HealthTech Works will also provide opportunities for Yale faculty to connect with potential investors and corporate partners.
“We are delighted to contribute to this important HealthTech initiative, which is designed to integrate and fund development across multiple disciplines within the Yale STEM ecosystem to bring innovation to market and to people in need,” says Robert Morse. “It’s a privilege to work with such a deep talent pool of scientists, researchers, and students.”