Stride digital health tech campus set to open in Fall 2015, bring jobs and Brighton Corridor boost

By: Steve Thursday September 18, 2014 Tags: Brighton Corridor, Caring in Place, Cirrus MD, Countermind, Denver, Denver Startup Week, INDUSTRY, Michael Biselli, RxRevu, Stride, Telespine, Test Appropriate

 

By Steve Porter

InnovatioNews


DENVER - A portion of Denver's Brighton Corridor area just north of downtown is about to be transformed into Stride, a 12.5-acre campus focused on digital health technology and innovation.

Mayor Michael Hancock made the Stride announcement Wednesday night during the 2014 Digital Health Challenge at INDUSTRY held during Denver Startup Week, Sept. 15-20.

Hancock said the Stride project is a public-private partnership that's expected to provide hundreds of new jobs, new housing and economic vitality for the area.

The first phase of Stride is expected to be home to 30 companies with more than 400 health-related jobs.

The opening of the first phase is set for Fall 2015, Hancock said.

"Some great new companies will soon be calling Stride and Denver home," the mayor said. "It will be Denver's first ecosystem devoted exclusively to health care technology and innovation."

Hancock said Stride will join INDUSTRY - a new startup and business accelerator that opened this spring - in helping to revitalize the Brighton Corridor.

"We are pumping some new life into a long overlooked neighborhood," he said.

Stride will be led by INDUSTRY's Michael Biselli, a serial entrepreneur and MedPassage founder who said his goal is to make Colorado No. 1 in digital health.

"Colorado will be the No. 1 state in the nation for digital health in the next five years," he said.

The concept for Stride grew out of PrIME Health Collaborative, an initiative of Denver South Economic Development Partnership.

Biselli thanked Denver South and Colorado BioScience Association for their help in helping to make Stride a reality.

"They (CBSA) have provided great support from the early days of digital health," he said.

During the 2014 Digital Health Challenge, six companies that survived a three-month vetting process vied for $100,000 in prizes provided by the Colorado Health Foundation.

The companies pitched before a panel of judges from Colorado hospitals and health care organizations to also seek pilot partnerships for their projects.

The companies - Test Appropriate, Cirrus MD, Telespine, Countermind, RxRevu and Caring in Place--all received pledges of either partnerships or possible collaborations. Four of the companies, Caring in Place, Cirrus MD, RxRevu and Telespine, were judged to have the best pilot models and will split the $100,000 prize.

Cirrus MD also received a $5,000 award from the Colorado Innovation Network (COIN) for being the state's most innovative digital health company.