Skip to main content

Northwell Health Launches AI Incubator, tackles Maternal Health Issues

Analysis  |  By Eric Wicklund  
   April 13, 2022

The New York health system has launched Ascertain, an incubator backed with $100 million in seed funding to help innovative start-ups develop and commercialize AI platforms

Northwell Health has joined the growing number of health systems to launch an incubator for innovative start-ups.

New York’s largest healthcare organization is partnering with start-up studio Aegis Ventures to unveil Ascertain, a “joint company creation platform” aimed at developing and commercializing promising AI platforms. The new venture includes $100 million in seed-stage capital.

“Ascertain brings a unique structure, an innovative approach, and a compelling vision to create breakthrough healthcare AI companies that are set up for success,” Michael Dowling, Northwell Health’s president and CEO, said in a press release issued during the health system’s first-ever Healthcare AI Innovation Summit this week. “We are all driven by the idea that everyone deserves access to high-quality, affordable healthcare. Our aim is clear: to find new, cost-efficient ways to create and accelerate companies that deliver real, equitable solutions.” 

And they’ve already started. One of the first projects, in collaboration with Northwell’s newly launched Center for Maternal Health, will focus on detecting and managing serious complications for pregnant mothers and babies, including preeclampsia, which disproportionately affects Black mothers.

“Existing approaches to the detection of preeclampsia often occur too late in pregnancy, once the condition has begun to manifest,” Burt Rochelson, MD, Northwell Health’s chief of maternal hedicine, said in the press release. “An important enabler for a solution to this challenge is predictive analytics, applying available knowledge of a patient's history to enable action far earlier with simple, yet life-saving, clinical interventions. We believe the AI solution Ascertain is currently developing will enable this.”

Northwell Health has joined a number of large health systems taking innovation into their own hands with programs aimed at developing home-grown technology that can be tested in-house before being offered to the healthcare industry. Organizations like the Cleveland Clinic, Providence Health and Penn Medicine have been fostering new companies for years.

And one of the more popular areas for innovation these days is AI, or machine learning, a topic that grabbed a lot of attention at the HIMSS22 conference and exhibition last month in Orlando. In March, the Mayo Clinic launched Platform_Accelerate, a 20-week program that allows innovative start-ups to collaborate with the health system on new projects.

"We are helping participants take a crucial step in their growth trajectory by providing startups with a disciplined focus on model validation and clinical readiness to show product value," Eric Harnisch, vice president of partner programs for Mayo Clinic Platform, said in a press release. "The program is integral to our Mayo Clinic Platform mission to enable new knowledge, new solutions and new technologies that improve patients' lives worldwide."

Northwell health officials say Ascertain will launch several companies during its first year that will focus not only on AI and maternal health, but also chronic disease detections and care management.

Eric Wicklund is the associate content manager and senior editor for Innovation, Technology, and Pharma for HealthLeaders.


Get the latest on healthcare leadership in your inbox.