While Propagate Health will engage innovators and build solutions with partners from across the globe, there is a robust bio- and health technology commercialization infrastructure to build on locally. Wisconsin’s second largest export is medical and scientific equipment. The state is rated by Battelle/BIO as having a specialized concentration in the space represented by companies such as GE Healthcare, Accuray, and Gilson. Batelle/BIO rates bioscience-related distribution an employment concentration in Wisconsin with large employers that include Thermo Fisher Scientific, Promega, and Catalent.
Wisconsin is well known as the home of Epic Systems, which makes an electronic health record (EHR) that has data for more than 50% of patients in the US. The company has approximately 10,000 employees, making it one of the largest employers in the state. Health tech innovation in Wisconsin also includes smaller venture-funded companies, such as Propeller Health, and reaches across the state from Red Arrow Labs in Milwaukee to Marshfield, where the Clinic had one of the first provider-developed EHRs in the country.
Innovation in health care should be a focus in Wisconsin because the state is:
- Top 5 in quality for the last three years as ranked by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
- One of the most competitive health insurance marketplaces in the US based on data from McKinsey
- Home to some of the highest cost health care in the US according to the Health Care Cost Institute
Wisconsin also has a history of health data collection as well as partnerships, including:
- Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality (WCHQ) Quality – Consortium to measure quality and affordability of healthcare
- Wisconsin Health Information Organization (WHIO) – Statewide all-payer claims database
- Wisconsin Statewide Health Information Network (WISHIN) – Statewide health information technology network focused on interoperability
- Business Healthcare Group (BHCG) – Collective action group of employers based in Southeast WI
- The Alliance – Cooperative of self-funded employers in Madison
