Health Care : Featured Stories

From healing nectars to the amazing new world of genetic engineering, health care innovations in Ohio will nurture the most fragile patients.

Has Silicon Valley jumped the shark? Ask many keen observers of technology communities from coast to coast, and they'll tell you that 2013 is prime time for startups to bloom in unexpected cities like Denver and Cleveland.

As the founders of Ecolibrium Solar, Coupsmart and other startups can attest, pre-seed funding is helping Ohio companies find their footing when their founders don’t have the financial resources to get started on their own.

Whether they are helping hospitals to manage access to private health information or creating a game that helps kids to zap away their health care fears, health care startups are growing in Cincinnati. Innov8forhealth, an accelerator now in its second year, is helping budding entrepreneurs to rapidly vet and commercialize their ideas.

The Austen Bioinnovation Institute in Akron harnesses some of the region's core strengths -- namely polymer science, orthopedics, wound healing processes and musculoskeletal studies -- to advance its status as a health care innovator.

It's never been easier to validate an idea and launch a new company. Yet access to capital remains a critical issue for entrepreneurs. The upcoming National Association of Seed and Venture Funds Conference, to be held in Cleveland from October 15th-17th, will bring together a community of aspiring entrepeneurs and investors to explore ways to advance innovation capital.

Victoria Tifft contracted malaria three times during her stint in the Peace Corps, learning firsthand how illnesses can devastate the lives of people in Third World Countries. Once back in the U.S., she was inspired to create Clinical Research Management, a company that conducts clinical research services and now has 350 employees worldwide. Tifft was recently named U.S. Small Business Person of the Year.