UC News

Cincinnati takes the lead in health care innovation

The 1819 Venture Lab’s Demo Day unveils what’s next in health tech

headshot of Stephen Kenney By Stephen Kenney
8 minute read December 3, 2025

Health care innovation didn’t just take center stage at the 1819 Venture Lab Demo Day; it stole the show.

Cincinnati entrepreneurs unveiled breakthrough technologies aimed at rewriting how patients are diagnosed, treated and protected. Hosted at the University of Cincinnati’s 1819 Innovation Hub, the event highlighted an accelerator program that has quickly become a cornerstone of the region’s health and life sciences ecosystem.

From concussion-prevention gear to more precise radiation-therapy treatment to faster cardiac arrest response systems, the tech on display offered a vivid snapshot of a city leaning hard into its growing reputation as a health care powerhouse. The health care startups that showcased their discoveries at Demo Day make one thing clear: The Venture Lab is where discoveries become companies.

Biotech discovery is accelerating, and it's ushering in a new era of startup growth.

Kate Harmon Assistant vice president, UC Office of Innovation

“Biotech discovery is accelerating, and it’s ushering in a new era of startup growth,” says Kate Harmon, assistant vice president of the 1819 Innovation Hub and executive director of the UC Center for Entrepreneurship. “The Venture Lab has become the Cincinnati Innovation District’s engine for turning ideas into impact. We recognized that researchers needed a clearer path to commercialize their technologies, so we built an accelerator cohort specifically designed to advance medical breakthroughs.”

The UC College of Medicine is world-renowned for its pioneering medical discoveries. As the nation’s first teaching medical school, it has a storied history of groundbreaking discoveries from Benadryl to the polio vaccine. Offering an accelerator program to meet the needs of healthcare and biotech researchers with promising ideas, the Venture Lab aligns with UC’s mission to provide the guidance, infrastructure and momentum to transform research into real-world impact.

Appai by Futureheal

Booth for Appai by Futureheal

Booth for Appai by Futureheal. Photo/Alisha Sutcliffe

Accurately diagnosing abdominal pain in children is difficult. Slow, inconclusive tests can push clinicians toward unnecessary procedures, while the complete blood count (CBC) is a draw that only adds to the stress and delay.

Appai by Futureheal tackles appendicitis diagnosis through rapid, data-backed analysis. By drawing from 17 million past pediatric cases rather than relying on new testing, Appai offers a quicker and more affordable path to answers.

Founder and pediatric surgeon Emrah Aydin came to the 1819 Venture Lab for guidance as he grows his company. The young startup is gaining traction, with 24 customers and 97 usage licenses already in place.

corVita

corVita founder presenting at Demo Day

corVita founder presenting at Demo Day. Photo/Alisha Sutcliffe

Every second counts during cardiac arrest, yet critical time is often wasted swapping incompatible automated external defibrillator (AED) pads between the seven leading brands.

The company corVita offers a simple, high-impact solution: a universal AED pad adapter designed to eliminate those delays in life-or-death moments. The Red Cross notes that survival drops 10% with every minute CPR and AED use is delayed, so even small time gains are meaningful. corVita’s multiport interface and signal conversion technology aim to deliver those vital seconds to improve patient outcomes.

The idea has support. Dr. Javier Baez of the UC College of Medicine calls the adapter “a lifeline that can save precious seconds and lives when every moment counts.”

PatientX

Cards for PatientX

Cards for PatientX. Photo/Alisha Sutcliffe

Clinical trial dropouts are both common and costly. Each day of delay can burn through $40,000, and trial attrition typically hits 25-30%.

PatientX aims to change the equation. Instead of relying on vague, retrospective feedback, the platform tracks the emotional and experiential factors that drive participants to drop out of trials.

By providing validated measurement tools, continuous real-time insights and benchmarking across protocols and industry peers, founders Jodie Huddleston and Elizabeth Sternke aim to help solve problems before participants lose motivation. As they say, “You can’t improve what you don’t measure.”

Range Assure

Range Assure founder presenting

Range Assure founder presenting. Photo/Alisha Sutcliffe

  • Founder: Jimmy Stringer

Proton radiotherapy is a vital lifeline for many cancer patients, but current methods carry a 3-5% error margin in proton range. That gap can cause beams to miss tumors or strike healthy tissue.

Range Assure, founded by UC College of Allied Health Sciences professor Jimmy Stringer, is tackling the problem head-on. He developed a CT calibration phantom designed to mimic real anatomy far more accurately. Small improvements in accuracy matter: a 1% uncertainty in proton stopping power can translate into a 1-2 millimeter targeting miss, which poses serious risks in treating prostate, head and neck and pediatric cancers.

Stringer has leveraged 1819’s ecosystem to advance his technology, securing a patent through UC Tech Transfer and pitching his concept at the Venture Lab.

Saturn Sports

Cards for Saturn Sports

Cards for Saturn Sports. Photo/Alisha Sutcliffe

An estimated 64 million Americans have experienced at least one traumatic brain injury, and emergency rooms handle 2.9 million TBI-related visits each year.

Saturn Sports wants to reduce those numbers by making helmets safer in football, hockey and lacrosse. The platform monitors chinstrap tension in real time, alerting players and coaches the moment a helmet isn’t secured properly.

Today’s safety checks rely on manual inspections. Saturn Sports pairs helmet-mounted sensors with sideline software to deliver faster, more accurate safety oversight.

Support has followed quickly, from the 1819 Venture Lab and beyond. Saturn Sports secured $200,000 from Ohio’s Technology Validation and Startup Fund, and more than 270 sports teams are already on the company's waitlist.

VortexPAP

VortexPAP model on display

VortexPAP model on display. Photo/Alisha Sutcliffe

  • Founders: Varun Kalairasan and Liran Oren

Nearly 30 million Americans deal with obstructive sleep apnea, and many struggle with the discomfort of traditional CPAP masks.

VortexPAP offers a different approach. Co-founders Varun Kalairasan, a UC PhD student, and research professor Liran Oren designed a system that uses pulsating airflow to support the airway without the uncomfortable mask CPAP users know too well.

Their goal is simple: make treatment easy enough for patients to stick with it. With support from the Venture Lab and a patent from UC Tech Transfer, the founders are moving closer to bringing an innovative option to market.

Cincinnati’s innovation engine

These startups are living proof that Cincinnati’s health care momentum is real and happening now. From cutting-edge medical devices to breakthrough biotech platforms, the city is rapidly emerging as a hub for innovation and impact. And at the center of it all is the 1819 Innovation Hub, providing real-world solutions for researchers and entrepreneurs to turn their bold ideas into companies that shape the future of health care.

Featured image at top: 1819 Venture Lab's Health Care Demo Day. Photo/Alisha Sutcliffe

Impact Lives Here

The University of Cincinnati is leading public urban universities into a new era of innovation and impact. Our faculty, staff and students are saving lives, changing outcomes and bending the future in our city's direction. Next Lives Here.

Tags

Related Stories