HealthCatalyst Northwest Arkansas Showcases Seven Startup Solutions and $20,000 Pilot Projects
The inaugural HealthCatalyst Northwest Arkansas program, hosted by HealthTech Arkansas (HTA) and NXTUS, Inc., culminated this week by announcing $20,000 pilot projects launched by seven Northwest Arkansas community organizations, implementing solutions offered by leading global innovators to address local health and community challenges.
Made possible by the Walton Family Foundation, Health Catalyst NWA aims to support economic growth and stronger community services through health innovation by engaging startups that are ready to help community organizations modernize and grow their capabilities. The seven pilot projects give the startups an opportunity to test their solutions in real-world settings while addressing specific needs across the region, including maternal health, addiction recovery, mobility, housing stability, and workforce development.
“Through HealthCatalyst NWA, we’ve learned that our region’s community partners aren’t just open to piloting new innovations, they’re eager to do so,” said Jeff Stinson, HTA Director. “Our differentiation around guaranteed and facilitated pilots will lead to improved community outcomes and economic growth for Northwest Arkansas, which is a major win for all of us.”
The program’s final week brought the startup winners and the community partners together in Northwest Arkansas for sessions, panels, and 1:1 meetings focused on their pilot projects and the opportunities ahead. The week’s highlight was the HealthCatalyst NWA Innovation Showcase, where approximately 150 community and business leaders gathered to hear from the startups, learn more about their solutions, and connect with the companies.
The startup winners were selected from a pool of 228 competitors representing 33 states and 25 countries. Over the coming months, the startups will continue working alongside their community partners to implement their pilot projects in Northwest Arkansas.
The 2026 HealthCatalyst NWA cohort companies and their pilot projects are:
Ashmi Health (Boston, Mass.): A maternal care operating infrastructure connecting expectant moms, community health workers and clinicians. Piloting with Arkansas Birthing Partners and Doula this and Doula that to support more than 100 high-risk pregnant mothers across Northwest Arkansas and the Delta counties. The partnership will stabilize the mothers' blood pressure and glucose through remote monitoring, nutrition coaching and community health worker support that removes all friction and ensures safe pregnancy and postpartum.
GaitIQ (San Antonio, Texas): AI-powered mobility health platform for adults 55+. Piloting with the Jones Center to integrate objective mobility measurement into existing fitness and wellness programming, establishing participant baselines and supporting earlier identification of mobility decline.
Huml Health (Bentonville, Ark.): Wearable AI platform enabling proactive addiction recovery care. Piloting with Arisa Health on a six-month post-discharge monitoring program for NWA substance use disorder patients, using LTE-enabled smartwatches to track real-time biometrics and flag anomalies for Arisa's care teams.
Life Startup Essentials (Phoenix, Ariz.): Essential home kits that help transition from homelessness to housing. Piloting with Havenwood to provide complete houseware kits to program graduates as they move to permanent housing, removing a key financial barrier to independent living.
Pear Suite (Tulsa, Okla.): AI-powered care navigation platform and management services for community health workers. Piloting with EverHope to conduct a billing readiness assessment and provide technical assistance to help EverHope access Medicaid and other reimbursement pathways for services it is already delivering.
We The Village (New York, N.Y.): Scaling evidence-based family engagement in addiction recovery. Piloting with the Arkansas Behavioral Health Integration Network to train NWA community leaders in the CRAFT family program, equipping families with skills to support loved ones with substance use disorders and expand pathways to treatment in Benton and Washington counties.
Welfie (San Diego, Calif.): Building and empowering the future healthcare workforce. Piloting with the Arkansas Rural Health Partnership to launch the Arkansas Rural Health Academy, a training and job placement pipeline for healthcare workers with a specific pathway to place graduates in NWA communities.
The 17 Northwest Arkansas healthcare providers and community organizations who participated in the program as community partners are: Arisa Health, Arkansas Behavioral Health Integration Network, Arkansas Birthing Partners, Arkansas Department of Health, Arkansas Rural Health Partnership, Children's Safety Center, Communities Unlimited, Community Clinic, EverHope, Havenwood, Jones Center, Mercy, Our Blood Institute, Spring Creek Food Hub, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, UpSkill NWA, and Washington Regional Medical System.
HealthCatalyst NWA is modeled after NXTUS’s NXTSTAGE Community Health and Vibrancy Pilot Competition, which has launched more than 93 pilot projects designed to improve population health and remove barriers to community growth in Kansas. HealthCatalyst NWA brings this model to Northwest Arkansas through HealthTech Arkansas’s network of healthcare and community organizations, adapting the approach to the needs and opportunities of the region.
In addition to funding from the Walton Family Foundation, HealthCatalyst NWA is supported in part by Simmons Foods, a family-owned Arkansas company headquartered in Siloam Springs that has invested in the health and vitality of NWA communities for more than 75 years. This program also collaborates with Visit Bentonville, The Collaborative, NWA Council, and Startup NWA. To learn more about HealthCatalyst NWA, visit https://hta.health/healthcatalyst-nwa.