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Hospital Innovation Programs Directory

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Health system intelligence profile

Inception Health

Froedtert ThedaCare Health (Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin)

Editorially verified · Last reviewed August 30, 2026

Intelligence summary

Program at a Glance

Program mandate
Inception Health was launched in 2016 as a separately branded innovation and digital health company-building arm of Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin, created in partnership with the AVIA Innovator Network. Its mandate was rapid testing and scaling of digital health solutions across the health network, with early project areas in patient experience, post-acute care and behavioral health.
Organizational model
Academic · Nonprofit
Location
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Program types
Venture studioInnovation center
Commercialization pathways
SpinoutInvestmentStrategic partnership
Focus areas
ClinicalDigitalConsumer
Public scale or maturity signals

Established 2016

Inception Health was launched in 2016 as a separately branded innovation and digital health company-building arm of Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin, created in partnership with the AVIA Innovator Network. Its mandate was rapid testing and scaling of digital health solutions across the health network, with early project areas in patient experience, post-acute care and behavioral health. It operated as an internal studio that developed products and partnered with external digital health companies, and it co-invested with other health system venture arms. Froedtert ThedaCare has since decided to sunset Inception Health as an independent entity and fold its team into the parent health system by or before spring 2027. It should therefore be treated as an active but winding-down program.

Documented successes: Launched in 2016 in partnership with the AVIA Innovator Network; co-invested with other provider venture arms including UH Ventures; noted status: Froedtert ThedaCare has announced Inception Health will sunset as an independent entity and integrate into the health system by or before spring 2027; STATUS: Froedtert has stated Inception Health will be sunset as an independent entity and integrated into Froedtert ThedaCare by or before spring 2027

Official engagement route
Program website ↗Health system website ↗
Last reviewed
August 30, 2026

Mandate and remit

What This Program Does

Inception Health was launched in 2016 as a separately branded innovation and digital health company-building arm of Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin, created in partnership with the AVIA Innovator Network. Its mandate was rapid testing and scaling of digital health solutions across the health network, with early project areas in patient experience, post-acute care and behavioral health. It operated as an internal studio that developed products and partnered with external digital health companies, and it co-invested with other health system venture arms. Froedtert ThedaCare has since decided to sunset Inception Health as an independent entity and fold its team into the parent health system by or before spring 2027. It should therefore be treated as an active but winding-down program.

Areas of Focus

ClinicalDigitalConsumer

Commercialization Pathways

These routes appear in the program's sourced public record.

SpinoutInvestmentStrategic partnership

Venture Investment and Company Creation

Fund or office: Inception Health

Inception Health was launched in 2016 as a separately branded innovation and digital health company-building arm of Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin, created in partnership with the AVIA Innovator Network. Its mandate was rapid testing and scaling of digital health solutions across the health network, with early project areas in patient experience, post-acute care and behavioral health. It operated as an internal studio that developed products and partnered with external digital health companies, and it co-invested with other health system venture arms. Froedtert ThedaCare has since decided to sunset Inception Health as an independent entity and fold its team into the parent health system by or before spring 2027. It should therefore be treated as an active but winding-down program.

Publicly Reported Outcomes

  • Documented successes

    Launched in 2016 in partnership with the AVIA Innovator Network; co-invested with other provider venture arms including UH Ventures; noted status: Froedtert ThedaCare has announced Inception Health will sunset as an independent entity and integrate into the health system by or before spring 2027; STATUS: Froedtert has stated Inception Health will be sunset as an independent entity and integrated into Froedtert ThedaCare by or before spring 2027

Contact the Program

Use the program's published contact route for partnership, licensing, innovation, or program inquiries.

Official contact page
Open contact page ↗

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Same program type · Same commercialization route

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The Center for Healthcare Innovation is the implementation-focused innovation engine inside Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, built around the premise that it takes an average of 17 years to move medical discoveries into mainstream care and that the gap can be narrowed.

Innovation centerAcceleratorStrategic partnershipClinicalWorkforce

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Sources and Updates

Reviewed August 30, 2026. External source links open in a new tab.

  1. Inception Health official source ↗ — beckershospitalreview.com. Accessed August 30, 2026.
  2. Inception Health source 2 ↗ — froedtert.com. Accessed August 30, 2026.
  3. Inception Health source 3 ↗ — beckershospitalreview.com. Accessed August 30, 2026.

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