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Permanente physicians help shape the next generation of care innovation
More than 100 physicians from the Mid-Atlantic Permanente Medical Group and other experts are helping shape the next generation of health care innovation, bringing real-world clinical expertise to a new accelerator that selected 9 startups from more than 1,200 applicants.
The 2026 Techstars Healthcare Accelerator gives participating companies the opportunity to work with Techstars investors and mentors as well as physicians and health care leaders from the Mid-Atlantic Permanente Medical Group. The three-month program began Sept. 14.
Bringing clinical expertise to innovation
The accelerator reflects a distinctly Permanente Medicine approach to innovation: bringing clinicians into the process early to help identify technologies with the potential to address meaningful challenges in health care and make a difference in everyday practice.
“Many of the most promising innovations in health care never achieve lasting clinical value because they were designed around the technology rather than the realities of delivering care,” said Ameya Kulkarni, MD, FSCAI, executive medical director of the Mid-Atlantic Permanente Medical Group. “Our physicians spend their days inside those realities, delivering high-quality, compassionate, affordable care to patients and communities across the region. What they can offer a founder is the difference between a solution that performs in a study and one that creates meaningful impact in clinical practice.”
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The accelerator focuses on 6 areas: care administration, reducing friction in health care delivery, strengthening trust in clinical care, women’s health, care at home, and chronic care and aging. The need for innovation in chronic care will only grow as the population ages: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 78.8% of U.S. adults age 65 and older reported having two or more chronic conditions in 2023.
From emerging technology to clinical impact
The 9 selected companies are exploring technologies ranging from AI and advanced imaging to digital health and novel therapeutics. Their work includes tools designed to identify cognitive decline earlier, improve low-dose CT imaging, expand access to preventive dental care, support people with addiction and serious mental illness, and advance diagnostics and treatment for cancer, pregnancy and complex wounds.
Together, the startups offer a glimpse into how emerging technologies could reshape care delivery. Just as important, the accelerator gives those technologies an opportunity to be viewed through the lens of physicians who understand what it takes to translate an innovation from an idea or prototype into clinical practice.
The Mid-Atlantic Permanente Medical Group includes about 1,800 physicians across more than 60 specialties serving Kaiser Permanente members in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. The participating startups will showcase their work at a Demo Day in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 9.
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