Parkview Health, a healthcare system based in northeast Indiana, wanted to answer the governor of Indiana’s call to help reduce the infant mortality rate (then the highest in the country) to the lowest in the Midwest by 2024.

To tackle the challenge, Parkview partnered with MATTER, Management Performance Hub and the Indiana Chapter of HIMSS to launch the Healthy Mom and Baby Competition. Parkview and MATTER sourced a pool of the most innovative solutions in the infant mortality space, relying heavily on MATTER’s network of global healthcare entrepreneurs. Together, the partners engaged 59 startups from around the world and hosted virtual pitch events and bootcamps to refine the startups’ solutions.

When the competition launched, Parkview hoped that they would find one strong team whose solution they could accelerate. However, after working closely with finalists through the virtual bootcamps, they decided to work with not one, but three teams: Candlelit Therapy, the Advanced Medical Simulation Lab and Fetal Life.