APRIL 24, 2025 SALT LAKE CITY, UT – The Utah Healthcare Innovation Network (UHIN) is proud to announce the selection of its first cohort of promising healthcare startups. This initiative, a collaborative effort between Park City Angels (PCA), BioUtah, BioHive, and in partnership with the Governor's Office of Economic Opportunity (GOEO), is set to accelerate innovation within Utah's thriving Health Tech sector.
UHIN's mission is to improve affordability and accessibility of healthcare, enhance the work-life of providers, and improve population health. By fostering a strong entrepreneurial community, UHIN aims to position Utah as a national and global leader in healthcare innovation.
The selected companies will participate in UHIN’s comprehensive accelerator program, which includes:
- Structured Growth Strategies: Utilizing VBGS SMARTStart methodologies to guide startups through critical growth stages.
- Mentorship & Expertise: A 10-week mentoring cohort with bi-weekly sessions focused on scaling effectively and avoiding common pitfalls such as poor product-market fit, running out of cash, and assembling the wrong team.
- Fundraising Education: Mentoring on various funding types and pitch preparation.
- Entrepreneurial Skill Development: Workshops and coaching on customer discovery, business model validation, product development cycles, and operational scaling, incorporating tools like the Business Model Canvas, MVP testing, and growth roadmaps.
Meet the UHIN Cohort 1 Companies
These products are under development and not approved for sale. These products are not yet FDA approved.
Company 1: Bloom Surgical
- Founder/CEO: Jacob Sheffield
- Description: Bloom Surgical is revolutionizing laparoscopic surgery, LaparoVision—a groundbreaking "windshield wiper" for laparoscopes. Unlike current solutions, LaparoVision effectively wipes and irrigates the lens directly at the surgical site, ensuring continuous clarity without scope removal. This unique capability is powered by a patented, origami-inspired compliant mechanism that differentiates LaparoVision from any existing device on the market.
Company 2: Diagnostic Ventures
- Founder/CEO: Brian Bentley
- Description: Founded in 2022, Diagnostic Ventures is focused on optimizing diagnostic technologies to improve rapid diagnostics and patient outcomes. Our technologies were developed at BYU over five years with $5.2M in funding from the National Institutes of Health and are exclusively licensed by Diagnostic Ventures. We currently have one patent awarded, one patent pending, and are in the process of submitting 7+ more patents. Diagnostic Ventures has assembled recognized leaders in both clinical and commercial diagnostics to address key challenges in both diagnosing disease and in healthcare overall. Diagnostic Ventures is focused on advancing rapid diagnostics technology and tackling some of the more difficult problems in infectious disease identification.
Company 3: DigiBeat
- Founder/CEO: Clifford Steele
- Description: DigiBeat is simplifying and scaling: cardiac screening and management. DigiBeat’s Cartometric Cardiography (CCG) system brings 70% of the clinical value of an echocardiograph with the scalability of home blood pressure cuffs. Shifting how we screen and manage heart disease moving forward. DigiBeat’s cartometric system is key to cost-effectively meet, scaling and quality needs for cardiac management. Acoustic, electrical, spatial, and visual data is collected from multiple locations for cardiac surveillance. By modeling with respect to the heart’s location, our cartometric cardiography system compensates for misadjustment in positioning. Mapping this with DigiBeat’s clinical dataset, offers robust correlative outputs of heart functions.
Company 4: FrostByte
- Founder/CEO: Jakob Travis
- Description: FrostByte is developing a lightweight glove liner with temperature monitoring and emergency heating elements that prevents frostbite and preserves dexterity.
Company 5: Micromist Rx
- Founder/CEO: J. Kevin Shurtleff
- Description: Micromist Rx has developed and patented a prescription-controlled (PC) inhaler device. Micromist Rx's inhaler enables the safe, fast, and effective delivery of drugs for improved patient compliance and reduced probability of abuse. These advantages are critical for potentially addictive drugs for pain management (oxycodone) and ADHD (amphetamine). The inhaler's low dose delivery works instantly (60 seconds), bypasses the liver (low liver toxicity), and eliminates concentration spikes in the blood, which reduces adverse side effects (including addiction). Micromist Rx is in the process of commercializing our PC inhaler in cooperation with our drug company collaborators.
Company 6: NeuroRobotic Technologies
- Description: Our Electronic Grip Gauge (EGG) mimics a fragile object, allowing users to practice handling delicate objects like eggs, without the mess. It automatically quantifies & tracks performance metrics (max grip force, transfer speed, # of EGGs broken, etc.). It enables at-home, self-driven rehabilitation, and clinical ease of usage while motivating patients with month-to-month performance tracking.
Company 7: RefloDx, Inc.
- Founder/CEO: Rudy Wilcox
- Description: Laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR) affects 65 million people in the U.S. at an annual cost of $50 billion. RefloDx has developed its proprietary SondeFlux technology to become the de facto gold standard for diagnosing LPR according to the authoritative 2024 Dubai Definition. Using SondeFlux saves billions of dollars in unnecessary healthcare expenses by enabling doctors to efficiently address major inadequacies associated with the current approaches.
"UHIN is committed to providing these innovative startups with access to the resources and support they need to thrive,” said Alex Wallberg, Program Manager. “We believe that by fostering a collaborative ecosystem, we can drive significant advancements in healthcare and solidify Utah's position as a national leader in the industry."
