Built in a Day Expanding health care ecosystem fuels economic growth in NWA

By Caleb Talley

Certain parts of the country are synonymous with the industries that once made up an outsized portion of their local economies. Think Detroit and automobiles in the mid 20th Century. Pittsburgh and steel. Silicon Valley and bloated tech startups.

These communities enjoyed extended periods of economic prosperity driven largely by a few marquee verticals, and many continue to do so. But as rust builds on some of the destination industries of old, a new generation of opportunity emerges in unexpected places.

Don’t tell the neighbors, but we’re in a pretty good spot here in Arkansas, and the outlook for 2023 and beyond is bright. Most are aware of the aerospace and defense industries thriving in south central Arkansas and, of course, the rice, soybean and other agricultural drivers in the Delta. Recent years have also seen The Natural State emerge as a national leader in steel production in our northeastern-most corner and keep your eyes on lithium in the south.

What’s on the horizon? Depending on who you ask, Northwest Arkansas could be on the verge of emerging as leader in health care, health tech, research and education.

That may sound like a stretch to folks in Memphis, Cleveland, Rochester and beyond. But had you suggested in 1960 that this region of our state would be a world leader in retail and supply chain, you would likely have gotten the same reaction. Yet with time, vision, hard work and (just as importantly) investment, Northwest Arkansas became just that.

Most of those ingredients are coming together once again to create an ecosystem that could set the standard for health hubs across the nation.

Back in 2015, the Northwest Arkansas Council — a nonprofit that’s worked to ad- vance the region for decades — laid out a strategy that included a goal of establishing Northwest Arkansas as a legitimate healthcare destination. What followed was a good deal of research, reflection and recognition of the barriers that stood in the way of achieving that goal.

The benefits of having a robust healthcare ecosystem held up by pillars of education, innovation, specialization and expanded access would clearly have a positive impact on health outcomes for a state that perennially ranks among the worst in the nation in all sorts of categories. Statewide, trends on obesity and chronic illness will almost certainly increase health care costs for all.

What makes Northwest Arkansas so attractive in this space? For one thing, the region is growing with a population both older and more diverse. That’s going to have a significant impact on what needs will have to be met from a health care perspective. Demand for more doctors, specialists, beds, access and innovation is obvious. Making Northwest Arkansas a health care destination is good for life and longevity. But it’s also great for the economy, and the cost of not doing so is high.

A study, commissioned by the Northwest Arkansas Council and released just before the COVID-19 pandemic, found that the region lost out on approximately $950 million a year through out-migration for specialty care. That number was projected at the time to rise to $1.43 billion by 2040 if gaps weren’t addressed.

On the flip side, the study found by adding the needed specialty services and making the right community investments, the economic gain to the region could be as much as $2 billion by 2040. That’s a $3.43 billion potential swing in economic impact to the region by helping meet the health needs of its popu-

lace. Win-win.

To address the gaps, the council’s study made a few recommendations that included expanding graduate medical education, developing an interdisciplinary research institute and expanding medical education with the creation of a medical school. And the work to deliver on those recommendations began soon after.

One of the major pillars of what may eventually be one of the nation’s premier healthcare ecosystems was introduced in January 2020 when Walmart heiress and regional visionary Alice Walton announced the formation of the Whole Health Institute.

A disease care system, she said, is not a health care system. Instead, the nonprofit Whole Health organization would address physical, mental, emotional and social wellbeing by working with health systems, partners, employers and communities to redesign health care delivery.

The Institute wouldn’t just focus on the treatment of illness, but rather amplify the importance of a “flourishing of the mental, physical, and emotional well-being, rooted in purpose, meaning, and belonging in our lives.” And it would do so with a threepronged strategy that includes building innovative approaches to care, amplifying research and best practices and advocating for policies and scalable models.

Another important step in laying the foundation for a thriving health care ecosystem in the region would be recruiting, developing and supporting innovators and entrepreneurs in and around the health care space. Innovation as it pertains to health can be multifaceted, whether it’s the product of research within hospitals and academic centers, medical devices or technologies developed by inventors and entrepreneurs, or impacts made on any number of predeterminants of health.

To aid in that development, the Institute also focuses on innovation in its approach to care.

“Our ultimate goal at Whole Health Institute is to bridge the gap between what we know most influences our mental, physical, social and emotional health, and how our health care and payment systems are set up today,” said Jordan Carlisle, director of digital health and innovation.

“This requires engaging in people’s health earlier, more frequently, making it easier to navigate, and more integrated. Innovating with technology is essential to all of those aspects.”

Construction of the Whole Health Institute’s facility is underway, with the goal of opening in 2024. The 75,000-square-foot building, which will be located on the campus of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, will feature office space and community gathering areas designed by Marlon Blackwell Architects in Fayetteville.

To help deliver on the vision set by the Whole Health Institute, Walton announced in 2021 plans to establish a school of medicine, offering a four-year, medical degree-granting program that integrates conventional medicine with holistic principles and self-care practices. The Alice L. Walton School of Medicine is a sister non profit organization to the Whole Health Institute and similarly creates a new paradigm of medical education.

According to Walton and the school, students will learn the importance of personal- ized, proactive, patient-driven approaches to care and treatment as well as how to reinstate humanity into health care by emphasizing all aspects of a person.

“The school of medicine is poised to be an inspiring learning environment that supports well-being, emphasizes innovation, and equips future physicians to be agents of change,” Walton said last summer. “We are excited to help pave the way for the next generation of holistic physicians and health professionals.

“This unique, site-responsive building will welcome students, staff and visitors alike to explore this beautiful campus, serving a broader vision of enhancing quality of life in our region and beyond.”

According to the school’s website, students will receive four years of training in the ARCHES curriculum, which builds on evidencebased approaches to teaching that include six core elements: art of healing; research, entrepreneurship and innovation; clinical care; health systems sciences; embracing whole health; and science of medicine.

“We believe in developing, testing and deploying more effective care delivery and payment models, and addressing health disparities in our backyard before we open-source and scale solutions to health systems across the country,” Carlisle said.

“We are also committed to making Northwest Arkansas a leader in advancing medical education through Alice L. Walton School of Medicine, where we’re creating a new pipeline for physicians with a curriculum that combines conventional medicine with whole health practices.”

The school will be built on approximately 20 acres east of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Construction of the 154,000-square-foot building is expected to start this spring with hopes of its first class in the fall of 2025, pending accreditation.

Later in 2021, to further address the gaps highlighted by the NWA Council’s study, the Alice L. Walton Foundation announced a joint initiative with the Cleveland Clinic to identify ways to provide access to Cleveland Clinic’s renowned specialty care services in Northwest Arkansas. The move looked to address one of the biggest factors behind the state’s economic deficit: patients leaving to find specialists.

“As Northwest Arkansas continues to grow, it’s imperative that we increase access to specialty care in our region so residents don’t have to travel elsewhere for care they could receive closer to home,” Walton said at the time. “Our goal with this collaboration to assess the specialty care needs of our region is to investigate how to make a transformative approach to health and well-being available to everyone.”

On their own, these projects represent a serious commitment to transforming the health care landscape in Northwest Arkansas and move the state closer to the goal of making the region a health care destination. But it wouldn’t stop there, as the following year saw the announcement of a new transformative health care system.

Last year, the Alice L. Walton Foundation and Washington Regional Medical System announced plans to form a partnership to create a regional health system to improve health outcomes across Northwest Arkansas and beyond.

“As we bring together the best health innovators and caregivers locally and across the world with the mission to impact a state that faces many health challenges, and in a region known for consumer innovation, there’s a compelling reason to be here,” Carlisle said. “And we’re already feeling it.”

The two joint initiatives would work to support the growth of health care services in the region, increase access to specialty care, expand clinical services, bolster research capabilities and collaborate with the school of medicine to train the next generation of caregivers.

“The creation of the regional health system will advance our mission and vision, including expanding our clinical, academic and operational capabilities, and continuing to invest in our facilities,” Larry Shackelford, president and CEO for Washington Regional Medical System, said in 2022.

“Our mission is to improve the health of area residents through compassionate, high-quality care and wellness education and to act as the central hub for clinical, educational and research activities in Northwest Arkansas. This partnership provides the resources to take our health care services to the next level to best serve our growing community.”

The seeds of a vibrant, multifaceted health care ecosystem are being sown from within existing academic centers, too.

Last spring, while most of the attention was on the plans being drawn up around Crystal Bridges, the University of Arkansas announced plans to team up with regional health care leaders to create a new program to focus on the challenges within the health care industry and create new solutions to bring to the marketplace.

Dubbed Northwest Arkansas Biodesign Sprints, the program is a partnership with the university’s Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, the UA Department of Biomedical Engineering, HealthTech Arkansas and regional health care systems.

HealthTech Arkansas is a health care accelerator and investment fund that connects early-stage health care companies with dis- ruptive technologies to Arkansas hospitals and health systems through accelerator programs and internal innovation programming. NABS will initially partner with four hospitals and health systems: Arkansas Children’s, Washington Regional Medical Center, Mercy and Northwest Health. erator programs in Northwest Arkansas and quickly realized they shared the same pain points in the male-dominated ecosystems of entrepreneurship and health care. So, they came together to form the organization and set out to empower female founders to build and lead profitable, women-centric companies that are offering solutions to women’s health-related issues.

The program will operate out of the Collaborative in Bentonville and will leverage partnerships to build a community of people trained in innovation methodologies, expose clinical and health care system needs and yield early-stage ideas and prototypes for the marketplace.

“The NABS program was born out of our experiences working intensively with Arkansas Children’s Hospital and Research Institute,” said Sarah Goforth, executive director of the Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

“Health care innovation for women remains largely stagnant as systemic issues of gender bias, underrepresentation of women in clinical research, and underfunding of female-related disease remain unaddressed,” said Prenger, FHF co-founder and marketing/ PR lead. “We’re excited to roll up our sleeves and get to work with our partners throughout the region to make this a success throughout the heartland and beyond.”

“With the benefit of partners at Arkansas Children’s who were willing to be out front in the creation of new ways of driving innovation, we learned that problems and ideas often lie dormant in the minds of busy clinicians who may not have avenues to advance them. This is fertile ground for innovation.”

Sprints refers to focused meetings to identify challenges and potential solutions within partner hospitals, led by administrators from HealthTech Arkansas. Students from across business and engineering disciplines will be assigned to sprints by OEI with the goal of strengthening capacity and promoting health innovation at the university. The Department of Biomedical Engineering will support the prototyping and testing of new innovations.

A couple of new pushes to accelerate health care solutions in the region will also roll out health-focused cohorts in 2023.

In the fall of 2022, woman-led entrepreneurial support organization FemHealth Founders was launched to help women’s health care startups in the heartland through an eight-week accelerator set to begin this spring.

Co-founders Natalie Shew, Elizabeth Prenger and April Roy met through accel-

With a long-term goal of accelerating 50 women-led health care ventures by 2026, the program will launch its first cohort in the spring with a fivecompany cohort, all of which will receive a $10,000 non-dilutive grant. The Fuel Accelerator also looks to leverage its network and curriculum to serve health-related startups this year. The program has graduated four cohorts of companies from Arkansas and around the globe since launching as a supply chain-focused program of Startup Junkie in 2019. The program pivoted its focus to artificial intelligence and machine learning in 2020, and this year, will add a second cohort for health care solutions.

“The Fuel Accelerator is a 12-week enterprise-ready accelerator that connects seed and growth stage startups with mentors and enterprise partners in order to accelerate the tangible adoption of technology,” said Matthew Ward, Startup Junkie’s director of Fuel. “We will be able to provide value to the health innovation scene in Northwest Arkansas by offering local health stakeholders the ability to meet with world-class tech startups at no cost, which have the potential to move the needle for the health organizations.”

According to Ward, the program will zero in on solutions that address health care-related efficiencies and administrative processes rather than medical devices or commercializing research findings.

“This could include areas such as health care supply chain, retention, recruitment, behavioral health and other focuses, which have been amplified in previous years from events such as COVID and the conflict in Ukraine,”

Ward added. “With the region being such a collaborative environment, there are massive opportunities for local health organizations to work together to find solutions with entities such as Fuel.”

And while it won’t be an undertaking of the Fuel Accelerator, commercialization of research is pivotal to the future of health care and the future of Northwest Arkansas as a health care destination. That’s where Science Venture Studio steps in.

Launched in 2020 as a pilot program of Startup Junkie, SVS has grown into an organization that, through collaboration with Innovate Arkansas, the Northwest Arkansas Council and OEI, assists Arkansas science- and technology-based startups apply for nondilutive federal funding. Led by Katie Thompson, SVS provides an in-the-trenches approach to securing federal funding, such as SBIR and STTR grants, targeted at early-stage commercialization.

“The research in the health care space can be pivotal not only to the individual but to the overall community,” Thompson said. “At times, innovative solutions in health care can support the individual physically, emotionally and financially, which in turn stimulates growth and prosperity to the family and overall community and region.

“Ultimately, research in this space has a definite ripple effect, which drives home the importance of this type of research. I’ve had the honor of witnessing and being in conversation with researchers that are taking their research from lab to the health care market. There are many challenges. To name a few: regulatory hurdles and funding. However, once these hurdles have been overcome, the payback from a financial standpoint and, most importantly, a human health standpoint is worth it.”

A lot has happened over the last couple of years to move Northwest Arkansas on the path to fulfilling a collective goal of becoming a health care destination that could set a stan- dard for communities through the country. And a lot more work will follow to fulfill the promises and follow through on investments made.

Still, the vision of Northwest Arkansas as a premier health care destination is growing clearer each day. And what may have seemed like a moonshot nearly a decade ago, is looking more and more like a reality.

“People from everywhere can get excited about making quality care affordable and accessible to as many people as possible,” Carlisle said. “This is a direct parallel to Crystal Bridges demonstrating the impact museums can have in the middle of America, and Art Bridges providing museums between the coasts with resources and art lending programs to make art more accessible to all people.

“With Alice Walton’s health initiatives, new innovations, and committed partners, we can transform how health care is delivered and taught in Northwest Arkansas and beyond.”