TMC Innovation is a collaboration-driven organization with a promise to improve healthcare access, delivery, and outcomes with the pioneering life science startups in our community.
Through our globally renowned startup acceleration programs, we provide medical device, digital health, and cancer therapeutics companies with the resources they need in the largest healthcare network on the planet – the Texas Medical Center (TMC).
TMC Innovation was founded on the understanding that health systems are committed to top-quality care and an ever-improving patient experience. We have the opportunity to create space for change in support of the healthcare institutions we serve. Our programs are designed to collaborate with health systems by providing a framework for performing diligence on emerging technologies and services, and supporting the relationships between startups and health systems as they develop.
We provide startups with the opportunity to validate medical devices or digital health platforms that address urgent problems in health care, and we ensure they are able to achieve clinical access and insight so that they are well-positioned for adoption and integration into health systems.
Before 2020, we recognized that innovation in healthcare is not just important, it’s vital.
Embracing pioneering ideas in medical technology and supporting their integration into health system workflows is the only way to remain prepared for the healthcare challenges of both the present and the future. At TMC Innovation, we’ve known this all along. And we’ve experienced it firsthand throughout the past year as we witnessed health systems handle the pressure of COVID-19. New challenges arose as health systems rose to meet the demand for COVID-related care while maintaining high-quality care for patients with other critical needs. Disparities in access to care were exacerbated as we saw the pandemic disproportionately impact in minority communities.
An influx of new technologies and and leaders are emerging to fill the gaps in our existing healthcare landscape. Here are a few examples of TMC Innovation-affiliated companies that used innovation to solve problems exacerbated by the pandemic:
- Babyscripts: TMC accelerator alum Babyscripts is a digital health platform designed to make pre and postnatal care accessible to all women. Founders Anish Sebastian and Juan Pablo Segura created Babyscripts to support the over 50,000 women every year who face maternal health complications, often as a result of barriers to accessing care which disproportionately affects minority women and women from low-income backgrounds. Babyscripts’ founders believe in safer, healthier pregnancies for all, and their solution is maternity healthcare delivered via smartphone. When the pandemic hit in early 2020, Babyscripts stepped into a key role ensuring that pre and postnatal care continued to be accessible despite lockdown restrictions and overcrowded doctors’ offices. Babyscripts’ virtual maternity healthcare model allows expectant mothers to continue to receive critical pregnancy care while limiting the amount of in-person visits to the doctor.
- Luminare: TMC accelerator alum Luminare, founded by Houston-based Sarma Velumari, is a software company designing products that digitize manual processes and optimize workflows in healthcare. Their sepsis management product was borne out of Dr. Velamuri’s experience treating patients in the ICU. In 2020, the company built vaccine screening and scheduling products that are currently in use in Harris County and beyond.
- Medical Informatics: TMC Venture Funded Company Medical Informatics‘s FDA Cleared Sickbay platform enables virtual ICU capabilities and the scalability of critical care. Roberta Schwartz, EVP and Chief Innovation Officer of Houston Methodist, and Emma Fauss, CEO of Medical Informatics recently discussed how the platform enabled the scaling of the ICU.
In the 21st century, innovation enables quality patient care.
When new therapies and technologies are made accessible to health systems, outcomes and quality improves and lives are saved. As illustrated by TMC Innovation Director Tom Luby, “We look for novel improvements to healthcare that have a pathway to implementation that considers the current standard of care but provides the opportunity to change healthcare delivery, access, payment, and quality going into the future.”
Our programs enable us to build relationships with burgeoning medical device and digital health companies whose solutions can be implemented into health systems and who address critical needs in how patient care is currently delivered. More about our primary programs are below:
| Accelerator for healthcare | Our healthcare accelerator is focused on clinical partnerships to improve healthcare delivery and outcomes. Every year, we select some of the most promising medical device and digital health companies from around the world to join the accelerator. During their experience, companies in the cohort work with our network of top-tier hospitals and seasoned advisors as they prepare their products for clinical validation, funding, and deployment into the world’s largest medical city – the Texas Medical Center member hospitals. |
| Biodesign |
TMC Biodesign is a full-time, paid program for entrepreneurs that brings together talented individuals to create solutions for healthcare’s greatest unmet needs. With full immersion in the clinical experience, founders gain the fundamentals necessary to transform ideas into products, and products into new startup companies. |
| Accelerator for cancer therapeutics | Our accelerator is a comprehensive nine-month program designed to enhance oncology biotech entrepreneurship training and drug development programs in Texas. By providing researchers and startup companies with integrated training, resources, and mentoring, the cancer therapeutics accelerator helps advance innovative cancer therapy discoveries, ultimately leading to new treatment approaches for cancer patients. |
At TMC Innovation, our programs are designed to ensure that healthcare access, delivery, and outcomes move hand in hand with advancements in science and technology. We connect life science innovators to the resources needed to bring their solutions to life. Because we know that when it comes to patient care, innovation is the future.