Celebrating Five Years of Service

This month marks the five-year anniversary of the GuideWell Innovation Center.

From supporting entrepreneurs to convening top health care officials and thought leaders to discuss the future of the industry, the GuideWell Innovation Center has grown into a nationally-recognized epicenter of innovation and collaboration since opening in 2016.

“At GuideWell Innovation Center, we are dedicated to fueling health care innovation by bringing experts and entrepreneurs together to identify solutions that can help address industry challenges,” said Camille Harrison, executive vice president and chief innovation and experience officer at GuideWell. “We believe health care innovation is a critical tool that can help us advance our mission of improving the health of people and communities.”

In the last five years, the 30,000 square-foot center has hosted 1,500 events, including the annual Lake Nona Impact Forum, and welcomed 25,000 visitors such as health care industry leaders, government officials, and a host of notable guest speakers including Dr. Deepak Chopra, entrepreneur and former American Online chairman Steve Case, and Super Bowl winning quarterback Russell Wilson, just to name a few.

The GuideWell Innovation Center has played a critical role in Lake Nona’s entrepreneurial ecosystem designed to attract and foster startups working on the next health, wellbeing, or technology breakthrough. Home to the UCF Life Sciences Incubator, equipped with private wet labs, offices, and shared research facilities, and a state-of-the-art co-working space, the GuideWell Innovation Center is a magnet for bright minds and big ideas.

Since opening, the GuideWell Innovation Center team has developed and successfully launched several state and national health innovation challenges designed to help emerging health-tech companies secure funding and receive guidance and mentoring to scale their businesses ideas. The GuideWell Innovation Center has also hosted matchmaking summits for entrepreneurs and investors as a way to facilitate partnership opportunities that support the growing digital-health ecosystem.

“We are uniquely poised with the right teams, partners, capabilities and resources to tackle some of the biggest issues facing our health care system,” said Pete Serio, vice president of enterprise innovation and customer experience at GuideWell. “And we know that this is exactly what our purpose is — to fast-track solutions that will help us manage and overcome major health industry challenges.”