Thomas Kucharski (IEDC) – Ethan Byler (BHI) – William C. Sproull (IEDC)
BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI) was selected as an International Economic Development Council (IEDC) Excellence in Economic Development Silver Award recipient. BHI is receiving the award in the Public-Private Partnerships category for its work to assemblethe partnership that sponsored DreamIt Health IT Baltimore accelerator program. The award, which recognizes outstanding and innovative development projects that have significantly enhanced the economic revitalization of distressed communities, states, or regions, was formally presented to BHI on Monday, October 20, during the 2014 IEDC Annual Conference in Fort Worth, TX.
“BHI is honored to be acknowledged with this award for our work with DreamIt Health in support of the DreamIt Health Baltimore program in 2014,” said Richard Bendis, BHI President & CEO. “This reinforces the dedication to entrepreneurship and innovation in the biohealth arena that we are constantly striving for in Central Maryland.”
BHI recognized the need for a Health Information Technology accelerator with concentration of young talented brain-power in the City of Baltimore receiving training in the healthcare industry, and soon asked partners to form an accelerator initiative.
BHI celebrates this award with its key partners to execute this program including the Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore (EAGB), Johns Hopkins University, DreamIt Ventures, Northrop Grumman Corporation, Kaiser Permanente, the U.S. Economic Development Administration and the Maryland Department of Business & Economic Development. Through receiving a Health Regional Innovation Cluster grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration BHI and EAGB, have been able to provide leadership in capital formation efforts to enable critical programs to come together.
The goal of the program is to jump start nascent healthtech companies developing innovative solutions to real world health care problems. Designed to help promising health care startups rapidly accelerate new products while identifying high impact business models, the accelerator provides up to $50,000 in seed capital, access to top-tier resources, guidance from experienced healthcare entrepreneurs, office space and more to the companies selected for a four-month boot camp. DreamIt Health Baltimore has started recruiting for the second class of the award winning program to kick-off in January 2015. http://www.dreamitventures.com/apply/apply-now/
The first program which recruited companies locally as well as internationally from Spain, Estonia, and Greece has resulted in seven of the nine accelerator companies to continue to retain a presence and base company operations in the City of Baltimore. The program is serving as a unique business attraction and retention tool in a City keen on attracting and retaining high-tech businesses and jobs.