Article originally posted here.

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The CTA accelerator gives high-growth Canadian entrepreneurs in-depth knowledge about the U.S. Healthcare market and provides access to experienced mentors, strategic partners, prospective customers, and venture capital investors.

1. Recruiting our Inaugural Cohort

Junto Health and our partners at the Canadian Consulate, and local investors reviewed over 200 applications to find the best digital health companies.

Using our experience running accelerators in the past, we augmented our Startup Evaluation Scorecard to include the goals our client had for the accelerator program. We then separated and used the same scorecard to evaluate the semi-finalist companies.

After the tallies and averages were calculated, we interviewed candidates via video call to get a better sense of the goals they hoped to achieve with the program. When all was set and done, we notified our finalists and get ready to kickoff.

Meet our inaugural cohort of Digital Health companies:

• Andgo Clinical Staffing & Absence Management‍
• Careteam Technologies - Care Coordination‍
• Conquer Experience - Virtual Reality based Surgical Training
• ‍Hyivy - Medical Device for Pelvic Rehabilitation
• InVivo.ai (Recently renamed to Valance Discovery) - Drug Discovery Aid‍
• iRegained Inc - Stroke Neuro-Rehabilitation‍
• ManagingLife - Chronic Pain Management‍
• OPTT - Behavior Health Digital Theraputic‍
• VoxNeuro - Brain Health management‍
• Zilia - Eye Biomarker Detection‍
• 360MedLink - Treatment Companion

2.  We introduced founders to strategic partners in the U.S. market

The CTA Digital Health program was built to accelerate the growth of Canada’s most promising early-stage digital health start-ups. Junto Health was responsible for the development, recruitment, and management of the mentor program. We facilitated connection between founders and mentors with networking events.

“Strong community and mentorship are the lifeblood of any successful entrepreneurial ecosystem.”
—David Cohen, Founder of Techstars

CTA 2020 Program Mentors:

• Gil Addo, CEO @ RubiconMD
• Matt Claster, Corporate Ventures @ Northwell Ventures
• Jordanna Davis, Partner @ Rockingstone Group
• Steven Dean, Partner @ PreHype
• Jon Gordon, SVP @ Commonwealth Care Alliance
• Dave Guiga, Head of Commercial Acceleration @ AstraZeneca
• Jamie Haak, VP @ Epicured
• Emily Hackel, Senior Leader @ Anthem
• Matt Hirlinger, Data Science Manager @ Janssen (Johnson & Johnson)
• Chris Jones, Managing Director @ UVM Ventures
• Kate Kerames, Strategic Partnerships @ Verily
• Dan Lambert, CEO @ PathologyWatch
• Gerard Leimkuhler, Founder & Managing Partner @ Berwin Capital Interests
• Theresa Litherland, US Director Connected Health @ AstraZeneca
• Julia Mahieu, Director @ Pfizer
• Samir Malik, CEO @ Genoa (United Health Group)
• Geraldine Massuh, Digital Health Manager @ Pfizer
• George Mathew, CMO @ DXC
• Rishabh Mehreja, US Head Digital Partnerships @ Novartis
• Michael Monson, CEO @ Social Health Bridge
• Bruce Nash, Chief Physician Executive @ BCBSMA
• Priyank Pandey, VP @ Emblem Health
• Viraj Patwardhan, VP, Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals
• Andrea Paul, CEO @ Health Media Experts
• Sylvia Romm, VP Virtual Care @ CityBlock
• Ed Shin, CEO @ Quality Reviews
• Paul Thompson, VP Americas @ DXC
• Kendal Whitlock, Strategic Engagement Lead @ Boehringer-Ingelheim
• Robert Zambon, Senior Director, Strategy & Innovation @ Janssen (Johnson & Johnson)

3. We designed and taught Entrepreneurship Masterclasses

Junto Health facilitated masterclasses on entrepreneurship designed to refresh founders in specific areas as well as to spark connection between the individual teams in the cohort through shared experience.

Example masterclasses:

• Making the Most of Mentor Relationships
• Developing your Sales Engine
• Ecosystem Intensive: New York
• Messaging for Multiple Audiences

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