Northwell and Aegis Ventures have announced a new joint venture that they expect will result in the development of new ways to use artificial intelligence (AI) in the health care field.
Northwell is New York state’s largest health care provider, operating about 750 outpatient facilities and 23 hospitals including Phelps Hospital in Sleepy Hollow and Northern Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco.
Aegis is a New York-based startup studio that builds companies, mostly in the tech sector, with a focus on data and automation, health and wellness, and digital health and health technologies.
“Aegis”™ experience in commercialization and Northwell”™s experience in clinical care complement each other perfectly,” said Aegis Ventures Chairman Bill Schoenfeld. “Our joint platform will bring together the medical, technological, and investment talent to launch new companies that address healthcare”™s most pressing challenges.”
The joint venture between the companies is designed to conceive, launch and scale AI-driven health care companies. According to the companies, the aim of the venture is to promote quality, equitable and cost-effective health care through “a first-of-its-kind company creation platform for health care innovation,” and enable new AI technologies to reach patients more quickly.
Aegis said it will provide at least $100 million in seed-stage funding with the intent of the money acting as a catalyst to stimulate additional funding from venture capitalists and other inverstors.
“New York was at the epicenter of the Covid-19 crisis, and today”™s announcement places it at the epicenter of innovation that will tackle health care”™s most pressing problems,” said Michael Dowling, president and CEO of Northwell Health. “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. Working together, Northwell and Aegis will create companies that bring higher quality, lower cost health care to those who need it most.”
The venture will work with frontline care providers across Northwell to identify and work on solutions to patient care and disease-related problems, along with operational inefficiencies in providers delivering health care.
The venture has started work on maternal health outcomes and the prediction of chronic disease.
