Health system intelligence profile
Hackensack Meridian Health
Editorially verified · Last reviewed August 30, 2026
Intelligence summary
Established 2017
Bear's Den is Hackensack Meridian Health's innovation and investment program, launched in 2017, that convenes quarterly panels to evaluate healthcare ideas and inventions from entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, partners and the system's own 36,000 team members. Selected concepts receive strategic partnerships, funding and other support, and external companies can receive direct equity investment from the health network. Hackensack Meridian has used a dedicated fund to make these investments, including a $25 million vehicle reported in 2018. The internal track has produced clinical and operational improvements sourced from nurses, physicians and frontline staff across the network's hospitals. It functions as both an accelerator for outside companies and an internal idea-funding mechanism.
Documented successes: Used a reported $25 million fund to invest in Pillo Health in 2018; made an equity investment in Alloplex Biotherapeutics; a single 2022 internal cycle drew more than 100 submissions and funded six winning team-member ideas spanning ICU cable management, medication reconciliation, pressure injury prevention, opioid-reduction ERAS protocols, ICU early mobilization and barcoding of tube-fed nutritional supplements
Mandate and remit
Bear's Den is Hackensack Meridian Health's innovation and investment program, launched in 2017, that convenes quarterly panels to evaluate healthcare ideas and inventions from entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, partners and the system's own 36,000 team members. Selected concepts receive strategic partnerships, funding and other support, and external companies can receive direct equity investment from the health network. Hackensack Meridian has used a dedicated fund to make these investments, including a $25 million vehicle reported in 2018. The internal track has produced clinical and operational improvements sourced from nurses, physicians and frontline staff across the network's hospitals. It functions as both an accelerator for outside companies and an internal idea-funding mechanism.
These routes appear in the program's sourced public record.
Fund or office: Bear's Den
Bear's Den is Hackensack Meridian Health's innovation and investment program, launched in 2017, that convenes quarterly panels to evaluate healthcare ideas and inventions from entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, partners and the system's own 36,000 team members. Selected concepts receive strategic partnerships, funding and other support, and external companies can receive direct equity investment from the health network. Hackensack Meridian has used a dedicated fund to make these investments, including a $25 million vehicle reported in 2018. The internal track has produced clinical and operational improvements sourced from nurses, physicians and frontline staff across the network's hospitals. It functions as both an accelerator for outside companies and an internal idea-funding mechanism.
Documented successes
Used a reported $25 million fund to invest in Pillo Health in 2018; made an equity investment in Alloplex Biotherapeutics; a single 2022 internal cycle drew more than 100 submissions and funded six winning team-member ideas spanning ICU cable management, medication reconciliation, pressure injury prevention, opioid-reduction ERAS protocols, ICU early mobilization and barcoding of tube-fed nutritional supplements
Organizational home: Bear's Den, Hackensack Meridian Health
Use the program's published contact route for partnership, licensing, innovation, or program inquiries.
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Reviewed August 30, 2026. External source links open in a new tab.
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