Building on the strong response to its inaugural digital health cohort this year, PULSE@MassChallenge expanded on the theme of champions such as hospitals, insurance, technology and pharma companies picking the startups they want to work with. The 2018 cohort will pair two champions with each of the 32 startups selected for the six-month program.

The PULSE program is geared to later stage companies that are ready to scale, have raised no more than $5 million, and generate under $5 million in revenue. The goal of the program is to hook up selected startups with strategic relationships, resources, mentoring, and community access needed to create an impact in digital health. Like a growing number of accelerator programs, PULSE@MassChallenge takes no equity from the companies.

Although it would seem like the priorities of say, a pharma company and a hospital would differ, Nick Dougherty, the program director for PULSE, said in a phone interview that the champions did a good job of finding partners with shared goals.

Although Boston Childrens and Cerner were the only partners he called out by name, other examples of partners working with a startup included a pharma company and a provider, and a payer with a provider.

What you get is a clinically valuable technology that is also highly implementable, Dougherty said.

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