Houston health tech accelerator launches nonprofit to spark, support female leaders in the industry

igniting change

Ignite has announced a new foundation to further its reach in supporting women in health care. Photo via ignitehealthcare.org

For the past few years, a Houston organization has supported nearly 100 female-founded health tech startups with programming, crucial connections, and more. Now, with a newly launched nonprofit arm, the organization is taking it to the next level to bolster women in health care.

Ignite Healthcare Network, which was founded in 2017 by longtime Houston health care professional Ayse McCracken, has created Ignite Health Foundation, a nonprofit foundation, to go beyond startups and technology to support women in health care across the board with networking and events, in-person and virtual programming, professional development, and more.

"The Foundation is a vehicle for major fundraising grants and foundations allowing Ignite to scale the work we do to discover exceptional women leaders and innovators, connect them with an expert community and help them achieve their career goals," McCracken says in a news release.

"This initiative not only amplifies our commitment to inspiring innovation in an untapped resource, female leaders and entrepreneurs but also sets the stage for groundbreaking advancements in healthcare," she adds.

The foundation will accept donations from those who look to level the playing field for women in health care leadership and to support innovative endeavours from female founders. The financial support will go toward all of Ignite's programming

"Join us on the journey and invest in women shaping the future of healthcare to create an inclusive and healthier world," says Sara Speer Selber, chair of Friends of Ignite Health Foundation, in the release.

Last month, Ignite hosted its annual Fire Pitch Competition at the Ion, crowning the award recipients and doling out cash prizes. This year, eight finalists of the 19-company cohort presented at the competition for judges and an audience, and three companies secured top spots and prizes.

In a recent interview with InnovationMap, McCracken spoke to how she's always looking for ways to grow her impact with Ignite.

"Having an impact in the health care industry and finding solutions is important to me," McCracken says of her passion for Ignite on a recent episode of the Houston Innovators Podcast. "The second aspect of that is there are so many women in health care, and yet you don't see them in leadership roles."

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Ayse McCracken joins the Houston Innovators Podcast to discuss women in health care and Ignite Madness. Photo courtesy of Ignite

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When COVID-19 hit, Ayse McCracken realized that women in health care were going to be disproportionately affected by the pandemic and social isolation. As the founder and board chair of Ignite Healthcare Network, a nonprofit dedicated to connecting and promoting female health tech entrepreneurs, McCracken jumped to provide a virtual way to connect her members.

"With COVID, it has only escalated the importance of our work, so we've elevated our voices through our webinar series," McCracken says on this week's Houston Innovators Podcast.

The webinars featured prominent women in health care discussing leaderships, the effect of the pandemic, and more. Now, Ignite has introduced an entirely new virtual event series focused on startups and, something slightly unexpected: basketball. Ignite Madness begins tomorrow, October 22, and will feature 35 startups. The startups will be narrowed down to seven finalists, who will then pitch at the finals next Thursday, October 29. Click here to register.

"We wanted to do something that was kind of fun and engaging for people while showcasing great entrepreneurs. We didn't want it to just be a pitch event," McCracken says. "When you look at basketball, the similarities were very interesting."

Women make up a significant portion of the fan base for basketball, McCracken says she discovered, and she had the idea of featuring female coaches into the pitch competition. Seven college basketball coaches will be involved in the event as mentors, sharing their own stories.

McCracken says she was strategic when organizing the pitch competition and made sure the competing companies were representative of both the industry's innovation and of diversity. The startups from 13 states across the United States and six other countries — 43 percent of the founders pitching are women of color.

"When we say women, we mean women of all colors and ethnicities," McCracken says. "We have made sure that our leadership team is diverse and inclusive. Everything we do, you'll see women in a very inclusive way."

While you'll have to watch the pitches yourself, McCracken says, the startups are focusing on novel medical devices, cancer detection, and nanotech-based treatment selection platforms, mental health platforms, telehealth solutions, digital solutions for women's health issues like fertility, and so much more.

McCracken shares more about what viewers can expect from the event as well as the important role women in health care play and the evolution of the industry in Houston on the podcast. You can listen to the full interview below — or wherever you stream your podcasts — and subscribe for weekly episodes.


Ignite Healthcare Network has hosted a pitch compeition for a few years now, but this is the first year for its mini-accelerator program. Courtesy of Ignite

Houston nonprofit launches accelerator program to give women-led startup a leg up within health care

The future is female

Within health care, female consumers make 80 percent of the buying power while women hold 65 percent of the workforce's jobs, according to a recent study. However, when you look at the C-suites in the industry, those percentages fall drastically, says Ayse McCracken.

"For as many women as there are involved in health care, it's not reflected in leadership," says McCracken, founder of Ignite Healthcare Network. "That's what brought us together."

Just 30 percent of health care C-suites are women — and only 13 percent have female CEOs, per the report by Oliver Wyman. Houston-based nonprofit Ignite is an organization comprised of over 150 of these rare female health care execs and focused on clearing a path for future female leaders in the industry.

McCracken founded the network in 2016, and her team established a "Shark Tank-style" pitch competition. After three years of the annual event seeing successes, Ignite is introducing its inaugural mini-accelerator program.

"As we saw this innovation economy and startup space begin to evolve in the city, it seemed that our contribution to this was that we could help incubate and find companies that had high likelihood of success," says McCracken.

Ignite and its partners identified 13 female-led companies from all around the world were selected from over 80 applications and now will go through a 10-week program called the Customer-Partner Program. Each company is paired with a partner and potential customer — from Memorial Hermann and Texas Children's Hospital to Humana and Gallagher.

Here are the participating female-led startups:

  • iTreatMD from San Francisco
  • BabyNoggin (by Qidza) from San Francisco
  • Ria Health from San Francisco
  • Savonix from San Francisco
  • MotiSpark from Los Angeles
  • UpHold Health from Chicago
  • Sound Scouts from Sydney, Australia
  • Augment Therapy from Cleveland, Ohio
  • Oncora Medical Philadelphia
  • Materna Medical from Mountain View, California
  • Path Ex Inc Houston
  • PyrAmes Inc. from Cupertino, California
  • Spoke Health Denver

The Fire Pitch Competition will take place on October 17 at the Texas Medical Center's Innovation Institute. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in prizes is on the line for the 13 companies.

"This year's event is already receiving increased recognition from investors," says Ignite board member and event co-chair, Cheryl Stavins, in a release. "In addition to the top three finalists sharing awards that include entry into the TMCx Digital Health Accelerator, over $125,000 in professional services, and cash prizes of $10,000, Fire Pitch participants will be eligible for investment prizes."

The Texas Halo Fund will be awarding its $100,000 investment prize, called the Corona Award, along with a $50,000 prize from TMC Innovation Institute.

Beyond the new program, McCracken says she wants to expand Ignite's reach and capabilities for its members and startups — including new investment opportunities.

"I think what we're doing now is reaching out beyond Houston and looking at how we can continue to grow the opportunity to have an impact and help women-led companies and women in organizations," she says.

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Houston-area lab grows with focus on mobile diagnostics and predictive medicine

mobile medicine

When it comes to healthcare, access can be a matter of life and death. And for patients in skilled nursing facilities, assisted living or even their own homes, the ability to get timely diagnostic testing is not just a convenience, it’s a necessity.

That’s the problem Principle Health Systems (PHS) set out to solve.

Founded in 2016 in Clear Lake, Texas, PHS began as a conventional laboratory but quickly pivoted to mobile diagnostics, offering everything from core blood work and genetic testing to advanced imaging like ultrasounds, echocardiograms, and X-rays.

“We were approached by a group in a local skilled nursing facility to provide services, and we determined pretty quickly there was a massive need in this area,” says James Dieter, founder, chairman and CEO of PHS. “Turnaround time is imperative. These facilities have an incredibly sick population, and of course, they lack mobility to get the care that they need.”

What makes PHS unique is not only what they do, but where they do it. While they operate one of the largest labs serving skilled nursing facilities in the state, their mobile teams go wherever patients are, whether that’s a nursing home, a private residence or even a correctional facility.

Diagnostics, Dieter says, are at the heart of medical decision-making.

“Seventy to 80 percent of all medical decisions are made from diagnostic results in lab and imaging,” he says. “The diagnostic drives the doctor’s or the provider’s next move. When we recognized a massive slowdown in lab results, we had to innovate to do it faster.”

Innovation at PHS isn’t just about speed; it’s about accessibility and precision.

Chris Light, COO, explains: “For stat testing, we use bedside point-of-care instruments. Our phlebotomists take those into the facilities, test at the bedside, and get results within minutes, rather than waiting days for results to come back from a core lab.”

Scaling a mobile operation across multiple states isn’t simple, but PHS has expanded into nine states, including Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and Arizona. Their model relies on licensed mobile phlebotomists, X-ray technologists and sonographers, all trained to provide high-level care outside traditional hospital settings.

The financial impact for patients is significant. Instead of ambulance rides and ER visits costing thousands, PHS services often cost just a fraction, sometimes only tens or hundreds of dollars.

“Traditionally, without mobile diagnostics, the patient would be loaded into a transportation vehicle, typically an ambulance, and taken to a hospital,” Dieter says. “Our approach is a fraction of the cost but brings care directly to the patients.”

The company has also embraced predictive and personalized medicine, offering genetic tests that guide medication decisions and laboratory tests that predict cognitive decline from conditions like Alzheimer's and Parkinson’s.

“We actively look for complementary services to improve patient outcomes,” Dieter says. “Precision medicine and predictive testing have been a great value-add for our providers.”

Looking to the future, PHS sees mobile healthcare as part of a larger trend toward home-based care.

“There’s an aging population that still lives at home with caretakers,” Dieter explains. “We go into the home every day, whether it’s an apartment, a standalone home, or assisted living. The goal is to meet patients where they are and reduce the need for hospitalization.”

Light highlighted another layer of innovation: predictive guidance.

“We host a lot of data, and labs and imaging drive most treatment decisions,” Light says. “We’re exploring how to deploy diagnostics immediately based on results, eliminating hours of delay and keeping patients healthier longer.”

Ultimately, innovation at PHS isn’t just about technology; it’s about equity.

“There’s an 11-year life expectancy gap between major metro areas and rural Texas,” Dieter says. “Our innovation has been leveling the field, so everyone has access to high-quality diagnostics and care, regardless of where they live.”

Aegis Aerospace appoints Houston space leader as new president

moving up

Houston-based Aegis Aerospace's current chief strategy officer, Matt Ondler, will take on the additional role of president on Jan. 1. Ondler will succeed Bill Hollister, who is retiring.

“Matt's vision, experience, and understanding of our evolving markets position us to build on our foundation and pursue new frontiers,” Stephanie Murphy, CEO of Aegis Aerospace, said in a news release.

Hollister guided Aegis Aerospace through expansion and innovation in his three years as president, and will continue to serve in the role of chief technology officer (CTO) for six months and focus on the company's technical and intellectual property frameworks.

"Bill has played an instrumental role in shaping the success and growth of our company, and his contributions leave an indelible mark on both our culture and our achievements," Murphy said in a news release.

Ondler has a background in space hardware development and strategic leadership in government and commercial sectors. Ondler founded subsea robots and software company Houston Mechatronics, Inc., now known as Nauticus Robotics, and also served as president, CTO and CSO during a five-year tenure at Axiom Space. He held various roles in his 25 years at NASA and was also named to the Texas Aerospace Research and Space Economy Consortium Executive Committee last year.

"I am confident that with Matt at the helm as president and Bill supporting us as CTO, we will continue to build on our strong foundation and further elevate our impact in the space industry," Murphy said in a news release. "Matt's vision, experience, and understanding of our evolving markets position us to build on our foundation and pursue new frontiers."

Rice University launches new center to study roots of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s

neuro research

Rice University launched its new Amyloid Mechanism and Disease Center last month, which aims to uncover the molecular origins of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other amyloid-related diseases.

The center will bring together Rice faculty in chemistry, biophysics, cell biology and biochemistry to study how protein aggregates called amyloids form, spread and harm brain cells. It will serve as the neuroscience branch of the Rice Brain Institute, which was also recently established.

The team will work to ultimately increase its understanding of amyloid processes and will collaborate with the Texas Medical Center to turn lab discoveries into real progress for patients. It will hold its launch event on Jan. 21, 2026, and hopes to eventually be a launchpad for future external research funding.

The new hub will be led by Pernilla Wittung-Stafshed, a Rice biophysicist and the Charles W. Duncan Jr.-Welch Chair in Chemistry.

“To make a real difference, we have to go all the way and find a cure,” Wittung-Stafshede said in a news release. “At Rice, with the Amyloid Mechanism and Disease Center as a catalyst, we have the people and ideas to open new doors toward solutions.”

Wittung-Stafshede, who was recruited to Rice through a Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas grant this summer, has led pioneering work on how metal-binding proteins impact neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. Her most recent study, published in Advanced Science, suggests a new way of understanding how amyloids may harm cells and consume the brain’s energy molecule, ATP.

According to Alzheimer’s Disease International, neurodegenerative disease cases could reach around 78 million by 2030 and 139 million by 2050. Wittung-Stafshede’s father died of dementia several years ago.

“This is close to my heart,” Wittung-Stafshede added in the news release. “Neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s are on the rise as people live longer, and age is the largest risk factor. It affects everyone.”
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