So, you’re an entrepreneur with a bright idea around technology in the healthcare industry. You have the necessary technical and business knowledge and you’ve put together a small, dedicated team. You’ve planted your technology seed and you’re bootstrapping your business.
Everything at this point is relying on you. Whether you succeed or fail depends, arguably, on whom you know, what your cash flow situation is, the guidance available to you, having a competitive advantage, and even having a workplace environment conducive to development of your idea. Without these things, your technology seed may never take root.
To help meet these challenges, the Dallas-Texas-based Health Wildcatters organization, a spin-off of the Tech Wildcatters, a Forbes Top-10 Accelerator program, provides a mentorship-driven healthcare seed accelerator program for early stage healthcare startups.
Last year, I participated in the educational HIPAA presentation and one-on-one event hosted by Health Wildcatters and sponsored by Layered Tech. Since HIPAA compliant hosting is one of the services offered here at Layered Tech, I teach about the security practices necessary to meet healthcare regulatory standards and specifications.
At the event, there was a range of startups with technology ideas directed at the digital health, mental health, health IT, medical devices, and other areas applicable to the healthcare industry. I had the opportunity to meet with several of the entrepreneurs who gave me high-level overviews of their projects, to which I gave my opinion on the impact the HIPAA standards and specifications might have on their technology seeds and provided guidance on what security practices they might need to consider.
I came away from the event realizing that providing startups with access to the resources they need, including an understanding of the complex regulatory environment, is a win-win for everyone.
For the Health Wildcatters organization, which provides initial seed-money and resources to a limited group of entrepreneur applicants, they are well positioned to invest in the cream of the crop upon graduation from their 3-month program. For Layered Tech, there is potential for creating a HIPAA compliant secure hosting services relationship with these healthcare startups. And, for the entrepreneur, there is every opportunity to succeed and nurture the growth of his or her well-rooted technology seed.
With the healthcare IT space exploding, programs like this 12-week accelerator platform are an ideal way to foster development of much needed technology. And, it’s gratifying to watch a seed of an idea bloom into a great business.
About the Author: Terry G. Raitt holds the CISSP certification and is the Information Security Risk Manager at Layered Technologies. His 15 years of experience in the Information Technology and Services industry includes roles as a policy enforcement manager, computer security incident manager, technical support manager, Linux/Unix system administrator, and network administrator.
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