To push Wellstar’s legacy of innovation even further, Catalyst by Wellstar was created in 2021 as the first-of-its-kind innovation company and venture firm. A team of innovators, investors, and builders was assembled to harness the decades of experience and knowledge of Wellstar and shape the future of healthcare.
Grounded in the revolutionary thesis that not all healthcare problems will be solved by healthcare solutions, and that those closest to the patients should be influencing the problems being solved, Catalyst established six strategic focus areas with the potential to make the most impact on the healthcare industry which are:
Catalyst launched its efforts by making key strategic partnerships with organizations like Engage VC, the leading corporate innovation and venture capital platform in Atlanta. This organization pools capital from the world’s leading corporations like UPS, Chick-fil-A, Coca-Cola, UPS, and Invesco to invest in and accelerate promising startups. In addition to capital, these startups connect directly with corporate partners like Wellstar.
As the exclusive healthcare partner, Wellstar secured access to leading startups across a variety of industries, an expression of its thesis of looking beyond healthcare for breakthrough ideas and technologies.
Catalyst has made additional strategic partnerships, like with the Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC), the state of Georgia’s technology business incubator; Goodie Nation, an organization focused on supporting underrepresented entrepreneurs and founders; and Plug and Play, a global innovation platform that connects change-makers and leading organizations like Wellstar. By nurturing these partnerships, Catalyst has established its leadership presence in the global innovation ecosystem that has resulted in numerous pilot projects, many of which have scaled to enterprise-wide contracts within Wellstar.
In 2023, Catalyst launched a venture capital fund to provide much-needed capital to these startups. Investment capital, in addition to the ability to pilot within a healthcare setting, is a key differentiator for Catalyst and has been actively deploying investment capital to both direct investments and funds, which can be viewed online at Catalyst.Wellstar.org.
Below are select highlights of this unique combination of innovation and venture capital efforts:
- The development and launch of a groundbreaking AI startup called vflok, which connects caregivers, making shift scheduling a human-centered experience for nurses. This is the first company created and launched by Catalyst.
- An industry-first virtual reality healthcare training library co-created by Catalyst, Wellstar’s director of palliative care, and award-winning VR company Moth+Flame. This compelling library of content trains clinical professionals to have empathetic and effective conversations on difficult topics such as end-of-life care planning. This is the first product co-created by Catalyst and launched into the marketplace.
- A successful pilot at Wellstar Windy Hill Hospital with startup RIF Robotics to use AI and computer vision to power a robotic arm in the assembly of a basic surgical tray, another industry-first. The industry-wide challenges surrounding the sterilization and assembly of surgical trays represent a multi-billion-dollar problem this technology could address, improving operational efficiency, reducing cost, and improving patient safety.
- A successful pilot, which became an enterprise-wide initiative at Wellstar, to provide virtual leadership coaching with startup Sounding Board. Leaders ranging from C-suite executives to managers at select business units have received this six-month training benefit to ensure that Wellstar’s leaders are developed as thoughtfully as America’s leading corporations.
- The negotiation of a state-wide exclusive agreement with identity management leader CLEAR to use their industry-leading facial recognition identity management technology to transform the patient experience, beginning with patient check-in. The pilot of this technology is taking place at Wellstar Avalon Health Park and will soon expand system-wide and include other use cases such as password reset.
- The pioneering use of immersive audio to reduce stress and anxiety among Wellstar team members. This initiative proved so successful it is being rolled out at select labor and delivery rooms at Wellstar Cobb Hospital. Thinking of music and sound as medicine puts another resource at our team members’ disposal to serve patients during moments of high stress. This unique approach to innovation garnered the attention of the preeminent healthcare IT industry trade group, the Health Information Management System Society (HIMSS), and was featured in the group’s annual innovation book series, “Voices of Innovation.” The chapter “Elevating the Power of Sound” in this book series was co-authored by Dr. Hank Capps, Chief Information and Digital Officer at Wellstar Health System and President at Catalyst by Wellstar; and Jaimie Clark, Head of Innovation at Catalyst by Wellstar, Director of Innovation and Venture Strategy at Wellstar Health System.
- Another problem endemic in the modern healthcare system that Catalyst is targeting is alarm fatigue. This occurs when clinicians become desensitized to the overabundance of alarms they hear, to the point that they miss alarms and/or have a delayed response. Nurses spend up to 35% of each shift managing alarms, with non-actionable alarms accounting for 80% to 99% of alarms in ICUs. Catalyst is piloting AI-driven technology by startup CalmWave to address alarm fatigue at the root, eliminating non-actionable bedside monitor alarms.
- Catalyst is championing sustainability at Wellstar with a variety of initiatives ranging from organics recycling with Goodr, which successfully diverted 15,837 pounds of organic waste from landfills and prevented 8,599 pounds of carbon emissions in 2023, to installing a Vertical Hydroponic Farm at Wellstar’s Corporate Office, which will produce an estimated 250 pounds of vegetables and herbs each week once fully operational.
- Catalyst has also made an investment in climate tech fund VoLo Earth, which is committed to tackling the climate crisis at its roots by providing crucial first-in funding and strategic leadership to early-stage climate tech companies. With this investment, Catalyst has taken a diversified approach to supporting promising companies that are making significant strides in environmental innovation. Through our investment, Catalyst is supporting over 30 portfolio companies that collectively offset more than 7 Tonnes of CO2 in 2022 alone.
- Catalyst is conducting a pilot and is investing in VECKTA, a platform that allows business leaders to have access to actionable insights and a vibrant marketplace of vetted providers to confidently plan, assess, deploy, and monitor onsite energy systems such as solar panels and battery storage with maximum efficiency.
- Leveraging the Web3 platform from startup MetaImpact, Catalyst and Wellstar have been able to map and track value creation and progress in difficult-to-track areas like employee wellness and sustainability. Wellstar is also using this platform to track progress against the goals of its 5-year strategic plan.
- Working with startup MapHabit to pilot the use of a proven habit-building set of tools for patients experiencing cognitive decline. MapHabit is the first to use the body’s “spared memory system” to help patients live more independently. The technology is being piloted with 75 Wellstar patients and their caregiving families and may be scaled further if successful.
- Pilot with Wellstar talent acquisition and Goodie Nation portfolio company Transition, which helps aspiring healthcare professionals find their best career path. The pilot is aimed at recruiting Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs) and Certified Medical Assistants (CMAs) to Wellstar.
Catalyst is infusing patient and consumer insights throughout our innovation process with Catalyst Voice, an online community for over 140,000 Wellstar patients, consumers, healthcare providers, and innovators to help shape the future of healthcare. Since launching in 2023, this community has provided thousands of responses vital to our understanding of patient and consumer perspectives on topics ranging from AI in healthcare and sustainability to digital health and customer experience.
