Johns Hopkins Gets $633K to Build Digital Health Exchange

Johns Hopkins University has been awarded more than $630,000 by the U.S. Economic Development Administration to launch a digital health exchange with the core goal “to advance the region’s digital health competitiveness,” federal officials announced this week.

The Chesapeake Regional Digital Health Exchange (CReDHx) will be led by Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures (JHTV), and with its launch, EDA officials contend that the Chesapeake Region—Maryland and Washington, D.C.—are on a cusp of a revolution in digital health and precision medicine. “With an array of assets spawning innovation, the is positioned to become the east coast hub of digital health,” they stated.

The federal government will be providing just more than $633,000 in grant funds, while local private and public sources will contribute matching funds up to $653,525.

While the region’s key assets include “world-class research facilities and academic institutions, a critical mass of startups, state commitment to ecosystem building, and an innovative health care environment with respect to reimbursement, delivery and data-sharing, according to EPA research, it still critically lacks a ‘network of influencers, executive champions, and support groups,’” according to officials. 

But the idea is that CReDHx will leverage these assets “to jumpstart a more intentional, resourced economic development effort with the outcome of companies, jobs, and capital flowing into the region.”

As such, the exchange will have three key goals: building a network of influencers and connecting the digital health ecosystem to ensure a strong pipeline of diverse talent in the region, while accelerating the commercialization of promising digital health technologies.

These initiatives ultimately aim to double the number of teams in the Hexcite Digital Health accelerator program—another Johns Hopkins initiative—while looking to steadily increase corporate and strategic partnerships, as well as upping digital health contracts by 10 percent per year during the term of the grant, according to officials.