Northwell Health and New York-based startup studio Aegis Ventures have announced a new joint venture that aims to create novel AI tools for improved patient care.
The partners said they’re planning to pump a minimum of $100 million into the new effort, although they also expect that young startups launched through the joint venture will attract “a significant multiple of that amount from the venture capital and investment community.”
Northwell and Aegis also expect to contribute their respective expertise to companies coming up through the new entity.
“This joint venture will leverage data from Northwell’s patient population, one of the most diverse in the world, along with Northwell’s intellectual capital in AI technology,” Michael Dowling, president and CEO of Northwell Health, said in a statement. “Working together, Northwell and Aegis will create companies that bring higher quality, lower-cost healthcare to those who need it most.”
The relationship with New York’s largest healthcare provider will give these companies access to frontline clinicians, patients, researchers and other Northwell stakeholders that can help guide the design of these healthcare tech products and validate their performance within a data-secure environment.
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Aegis, meanwhile, will be bringing its experience in company co-creation and commercialization to help the companies gain steam within the ever-crowding healthcare AI startup space. The companies also noted that the team staffing their joint venture will be comprised of “exceptional entrepreneurs, data scientists, engineers and industry leaders with the commercial acumen needed to bring these innovations to the patient’s bedside.”
As for the new technologies themselves, Northwell and Aegis have cast a fairly wide net for their new company creation platform. According to the announcement, the partners have already kicked off work on AI projects focused on improving maternal health outcomes and predicting chronic diseases.
Alongside other disease prediction, diagnosis and management tools, the partners are looking ahead to projects that can spot and wipe out operational inefficiencies during care delivery. Each of these efforts will not only strive to improve care and cut down costs, they said in the announcement, but will also aim to “reduce racial and socioeconomic biases that drive health inequities and have impaired existing AI solutions.”
“Our mission is to catalyze a new Moore’s Law in healthcare where, as we continually improve access, we continually reduce cost,” said Tom Manning, chairman of the Northwell-Aegis JV and former chairman and CEO of corporate analytics provider Dun & Bradstreet, in a statement.
“This new effort promises to transform the model for innovation in healthcare and improve outcomes for everyone, but particularly for people who may be lost in the shuffle and most need our help," he said.
Northwell has signaled a growing interest in healthcare algorithms and data-driven decision-making.
Late last year, the system’s medical research division showed off an AI tool that gauges when a hospitalized patient should be woken up for vitals readings or allowed to get more rest.
Northwell was also named among the founding health system partners of Truveta, a healthcare data analytics platform that aims to deliver personalized health insights, support population health and drive research into novel therapeutics. That effort recently announced the close of a $95 million series A funding round and an updated total of 17 health system backers.
Northwell also isn’t alone in growing its health innovations from within. Others, like Mount Sinai Health System, have kicked off new programs bringing early-stage startups inside hospitals to guide their development and commercialization.