How a UC nurse practitioner turned a clinical problem into digital innovation
Nurses spot what others miss. They notice gaps in care, recurring patient questions, and inefficiencies baked into the system but most never think to turn those observations into something they can build.
University of Cincinnati College of Nursing alumna Nicole Homan, MSN, APRN, WHNP-BC, did. Through years in maternal newborn care and women's health, Homan kept meeting women who wanted more than a routine office visit could give them.
"Women weren't short on information on their hormones, cycles, fertility," Homan says. "They were overwhelmed by it. They wanted someone to help them understand what applied to them and what they could proactively do to improve their health."
That opportunity became Beginn Health, a digital platform that pairs personalized health information with ongoing clinician support to help women understand their bodies before, during, and beyond pregnancy. Her path from bedside nurse to healthcare entrepreneur was built on the support of UC's innovation ecosystem — mentorship, funding, and business guidance that turned a clinical insight into a working solution. Today, that same kind of support is available through a dedicated academic pathway offered by the College of Nursing.
Bridging insight and solution
After a break from clinical practice to raise her children, Homan returned to UC to earn her Women's Health Nurse Practitioner degree. Rotations in fertility, endocrinology, obstetrics, and maternal-fetal medicine confirmed a gap she knew existed.
"I kept hearing women ask, 'Can we find out why this is happening?' or 'What can I do before I need fertility treatment?'" she says. "The need for more personalized, proactive care just kept being validated."
That's when Homan stopped treating the gap as inevitable and started asking a different question: What if there was a better way?
Beginn Health is the answer — a digital patient engagement platform combining personalized health information with ongoing clinician support. It helps women understand their health before, during, and beyond pregnancy, while giving clinicians insights they can act on during office visits.
Knowing what to build was the easy part. Knowing how to build it was another story.
Homan presenting at UC's 1819 Venture Lab
"I felt like I was out in the middle of the ocean by myself," Homan recalls. "I knew there was a need. I knew patients wanted this. But where do you even start?"
The answer came from UC itself. While finishing her graduate degree, Homan joined Venture Lab at UC's 1819 Innovation Hub, where she learned to validate her idea, build a business model, and connect with mentors who had done it before. Grant funding let her hire a UC computer science student to start building the platform, while legal and entrepreneurial resources across the university helped her formally establish the business.
"It takes a village. I needed mentorship. I needed technology support. I needed legal guidance. Having access to people across UC who could help at each stage made a huge difference."
Today, Homan runs Beginn Health as a growing telehealth practice, refining the platform through ongoing patient feedback. That work recently got a boost from a Nick & Shawna Dobrzelecki Nursing Innovation Fund, established by a College of Nursing alumnus to support nursing students, alumni, and faculty who are developing or refining nursing innovation projects. Homan is using the funding to further build out the platform.
How can other nurses follow a similar innovation path?
Homan was often the only nurse in the entrepreneurial programs she attended, but she believes nurses are some of the best-prepared professionals to innovate. Every shift, they assess complex situations, spot patterns, and adapt care to individual patients on the fly.
"When you're working at the bedside, you see things that could be done differently every day, but you don't necessarily think, 'I can build something to solve this,'" Homan says. "Nurses should know that when they recognize a problem, they can be part of creating the solution."
Homan at a UC College of Nursing Scholarship Reception
UC has built that on-ramp: an online Nurse-Led Innovation Post-Baccalaureate Certificate, offered by the College of Nursing in partnership with the Lindner College of Business. Registered nurses who notice a problem worth solving can now learn the same skills that carried Homan from an open-ended question to a working platform: validating an idea, building a business model, and leading systemic change, without stepping away from clinical practice.
“The program is designed to be practical, flexible, and deeply connected to real-world healthcare challenges, explains Melissa Cheeks, DNP, RN, the college’s Joan and Mark Hurray Professor of Innovation & Director of Nursing Innovation. “This isn’t just about creating products, it’s about care model innovation, workflow redesign, advocacy and systems thinking.”
Homan's story makes the case plainly: by combining clinical expertise with entrepreneurship, technology, and interdisciplinary collaboration, nurses can improve care for one patient at a time, or for entire populations.
It starts the same way nursing does: by listening, noticing what's missing, and asking how care could be better.
What have you noticed that could make care better?
Every nurse sees opportunities to improve care. UC's online Nurse-Led Innovation Post-Baccalaureate Certificate helps you turn those observations into solutions that make a lasting impact.
Feature image: Nicole Homan at UC's 1819 Venture Lab graduation. Photo provided.
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