Peoria, Ill.-based OSF HealthCare and Chicago's Insight Hospital & Medical Center have joined the Chicago ARC collaborative that aims to make healthcare more equitable through innovation.
The group, which held its inaugural partner meeting Dec. 7, already included University of Chicago Medicine and Sinai Chicago. It aims to connect startups with healthcare organizations to reduce disparities across the Midwest in such areas as behavioral health and substance use disorder, aging in place, and maternal and child health.
"Partnering with the Chicago ARC enables OSF to access clinically proven global startups, use technologies to serve our rural and urban communities, and collaboratively build the future of technology-enabled care with a diverse group of leading institutions," OSF CEO Robert Sehring said in a Dec. 7 ARC news release.
Chicago ARC also finalized its partnership agreement with Israel-based Sheba Medical Center, whose innovation and startup accelerator work inspired the project.
"Chicago ARC is taking radical collaboration to the next level by bringing together the amazing traditional healthcare ecosystem in Chicago and fourth industrial revolution technologies to bring population health, social determinants and health equity from philosophic and academic exercises to the mainstream of clinical care in Chicago and beyond," stated Stephen Klasko, MD, the North American ambassador for Sheba Medical Center and ARC and executive-in-residence at venture capital firm General Catalyst.
Other new partners include Americare Senior Living, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the Chicago-based Illinois Institute of Technology.