Greg Hargis spent almost two years in the hospital while battling leukemia, starting in 2012. Whether he needed a snack or immediate emergency medical care, he only had one red button to press for help.
To pass his time, Hargis, a visual communications specialist, began drawing up designs for a patient care system that would send alerts to hospital staff members, depending on a patient's needs.
Two years later, Hargis and his two co-founders have created Callie Solutions, a tablet and mobile app that Hargis hopes will replace the red button by offering doctors and nurses more information.
When Gre'Juana 'G' Dennis, vice president of patient services and innovation at Baptist Health, interviewed Hargis and his team for a coming business incubator at the Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub in North Little Rock, she didn't take them seriously.
"I thought they were nuts. I mean, they're going after some of the largest companies in the field. I thought they were smoking something," said Dennis. "But as I thought about it, I realized this has the potential to transform the way we deliver bedside care."
After 13 weeks of mentorship and $50,000 of funding from Arkansas Blue Cross Blue Shield and Baptist Health, Hargis presented a prototype of his patient care system to investors and health care professionals at the "HubX Lifesciences Demo Day" on Thursday at the innovation center.
Hargis, who came to the incubator from Philadelphia, hopes to have Callie Solutions systems in Arkansas hospitals by next summer.
Hargis was one of seven health care startups -- from Huntsville, Ala., to Portugal -- participating in the innovation center's health care incubator.
Zimin Hang from St. Louis created Chrona Sleep, a pillow topper that Hang claims makes six hours of sleep "feel like eight." Hang won awards for both best presentation and "most investable" company.
Several startups attempted to streamline data collection and analytics for hospitals. Admetsys, developed by Jeff Valk of Boston, is an artificially intelligent pancreas simulator that calculates patients' glucose levels and administers medication automatically.
Like Hargis, Diogo Ortega of Portugal wanted to facilitate communication between patients and health care providers. Ortega created Line Health, a medication delivery system that sorts patients' medications into packages based on the time they should take them and sends notifications to caregivers if medications aren't taken on time.
Mike Preston, director of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, said he hopes this incubator and others like it will bring high-paying technology jobs to Arkansas.
"My plea to you is that you stay here in Arkansas and build your businesses," Preston said.
Arkansas' U.S. Rep. French Hill said he hopes some of the companies from the incubator stay in the state, where they have now made connections with insurance companies and health care providers.
"I can't think of a better place to come and be in an incubator," Hill said.
Business on 07/01/2016