Health care innovators can now get connected in Idaho

Health Tech Idaho — a hub that will allow entrepreneurs, startups, early-stage companies and investors to interact and leverage their strengths — held its introductory and first networking event on Feb. 15. At the event, speakers addressed how the organization plans to support local health care innovators, from providing a presence on a website directory to offering event opportunities and services.

The free event at St. Luke’s Plaza Central Auditorium brought together health care and health tech professionals around health care innovation.

Rourke Yeakley, a practicing emergency medicine physician and Saltzer Health’s chief innovation officer, said Health Tech Idaho’s goal, first and foremost, is to help innovators get the word out there about their product or startup.

“Let’s give some free space to innovators, to entrepreneurs and startups so they can get their presence and show that they’re actually out there,” Yeakley said. “Someone who’s looking for the missing element in their startup or their capital, it’s here; you don’t have to go to San Diego or San Francisco.”

Molly Zimmer, who leads the Innovation Center of Excellence at St. Luke’s Health System and chairs the MedTech track for Boise Entrepreneur Week, discussed the innovation center’s goals to help fuel innovation and plans for building out the center around a vision of “creating a framework that we can use and a process to de-risk.”

“It’s leveling the playing field on how we make decisions by testing assumptions before we invest, so we’re still working on that,” Zimmer said. “That’s a huge passion of ours.”

She added that there are significant barriers to entry in health care innovation and health tech innovation, especially from people coming from outside the health care industry.

“One of our really most-surprising aspects and most joyful aspects of our innovation (center) is the part we’ve gotten to play in just getting out in the community,” Zimmer said. “We became really passionate about how we can offer sort of a front door to entrepreneurs in this space. I’m excited to be a connector and be someone who can offer that support or connection.”

Nick Crabbs, partner of Health Tech Idaho, founding member of software development consultancy Vynyl and co-chair of Boise Entrepreneur Week, discussed the origin of Health Tech Idaho and how it came to fruition.

“About seven to 10 years ago, it was very hard for innovators to make those connections. And Boise Entrepreneur Week was kind of the big thing that helped to change that,” he said. “These folks all managed to spin it out into something else to be innovative for our community. I’m excited to see this organization come together.”