A Houston-area company has created an easy-to-use health-check app for employees returning to work. Pexels

A Woodlands-based health services company recently announced a new app that can serve as a self-service pre-screening tool for COVID-19 to be used by employees to return to their workplace.

Axiom Medical created the CheckIn2Work app to make the transition into the workplace after the coronavirus crisis safer and easier, making it simple for businesses and offices to reopen after stay-at-home orders shut down workplaces during the height of the pandemic.

"Given the current challenges we have all experienced with COVID-19, we recognize the workplace will be forever changed," says Axiom Medical President and CEO Mark Robinson. "Our CheckIn2Work app simply adds another layer to protecting the health of team members, customers, and vendors from the risk of infectious disease in the workplace."

The app includes features such as a 24/7 self-service illness screening with the latest screening criteria approved by Chief Medical Officer Scott Cherry. The app also includes immediate access to U.S.-based Clearance Center for exposure/illness alerts, real-time reporting, and ongoing best practices to reduce the spread of the virus in the work environment.

When an app user is flagged as exposed to the virus, Axiom Medical's Rapid Response Contagious Respiratory Illness Assessment Clearance Center professionals can conduct secondary screening procedures via a phone call to confirm cases and eliminate false positives.

The app has 50,000 users already from Axiom's new and existing clients who have signed on to the platform. Some of their partners include BJ Services, Tyson Foods, ISS Facility Services, and Fort Bend Kia, Robinson says it creates safe and healthy facilities for both employees and customers.

"It enables our clients to be appropriately responsive to trying to screen out the infection in their workplace," says Robinson, "It also gives employees confidence that returning to work and exposing themselves to their coworkers is safe while providing customers who have contact with the employees with the confidence who they will be interacting with has been screened and cleared."

For the health services company, keeping employees safe has been the heart of their mission since it was founded more than two decades ago. Axiom Medical markets itself as an employer's outsourced "in house" medical department, managing a complete array of occupational health services such as scheduling exams, verifying results for accuracy, and maintaining records.

"Our focus is on the health of the worker in the workplace," says Robinson. "Both our traditional services and our new service all focus on keeping people as healthy as possible, returning them to work as quickly as possible after an injury or illness keeps them out of the workplace, and making sure they are tested for a variety of risks."

CheckIn2Work is now available on iOS and Android mobile devices including a web portal where employees can check in before work every day to check for symptoms of COVID-19. The app is adaptable with language settings in English and Spanish and allows for customizable questions to fit an organization's needs.

"I hope we can continue to take this seriously and take good precautions," says Robinson. "This is a really horrible disease, it isn't just about the people who die as a result, it's also about those who are permanently disabled because of it. Those weeks in a hospital are mirrored by more weeks in recovery before they can even think about working again."

The Cannon is expecting to open by the end of next month. Courtesy of The Cannon

Photos: The Cannon enters home stretch ahead of opening next month

Cannon Countdown

If all goes according to plan, The Cannon's new space will be up and running by the end of June. The bulk of the construction, which started a little over a year ago, is done, and the team is on the home stretch.

The original plan was to open in March, but construction faced a series of setbacks due to weather.

"Houston's rainy winter pushed back our initial timeline a bit, but we are currently on track for opening late next month and are excited to get our amazing community moved into our brand new home," says Lawson Gow, founder and CEO of The Cannon. "We can't wait to show off our space to Houston's entrepreneurial community through events, programming, new partnerships and more, continuing in our mission to support Houston's startups and small businesses."

Two Houston-based companies are responsible for the 120,000-square-foot, 32-acre coworking and entrepreneurship campus in West Houston — Burton Construction is the general contractor and Abel Design Group is the architect.

The new space is already 80 percent pre-leased. Currently, The Cannon has a 20,000-square-foot space next door to the construction site. While companies working out of this so-called "waiting room" building will be moving over, Gow, who is the son of InnovationMap's CEO, is excited to announce a few new startups excited to call The Cannon home next month.

The goal of The Cannon's project is to fulfill a need Gow says he recognized in Houston.

"The problem that we're addressing — every startup is addressing a problem — is Houston has really struggled to develop vibrant startup communities," Gow tells InnovationMap in a previous interview. "Entrepreneurs and talent will leave to go to Austin and beyond, and so the mission was to create a place and an infrastructure and a density of resources to prevent them from having to do that and keep our entrepreneurs here."

The new space will allow Gow and his team to host pitch events and even live fundraising events, due to a partnership with LetsLaunch.

Progress

Courtesy of The Cannon

The Cannon's construction delays were mostly due to a rainy season in Houston.

Take a video tour of The Cannon here:

The Cannon Flythroughwww.youtube.com

Houston-based WorkLodge announced its annual contest to give away a year of free work. Getty Images

Houston coworking space to give away a free year of workspace to a worthy startup

Need space?

WorkLodge, a Houston-based coworking space franchise, is again offering up a chance for a free year of space for a lucky startup in town.

IGNITE by WorkLodge, an annual program, launched on March 14 and closes on April 7. Applicants can enter for free at ignitebyworklodge.com. The form asks for business ownership details, marketing, basic financial information, and entrepreneurial vision questions, per the website.

If selected as a finalist, the startup founder will pitch their business at a judging panel on April 11 at 6:30 p.m. at WorkLodge's Woodland location located at 25700 I-45 Suite 400. It's at this event where a winner will be selected.

"During our previous IGNITE By WorkLodge for nonprofits office giveaway, we saw an astonishing turnout of individuals with incredible business concepts and no central office to help their dreams become reality," says WorkLodge CEO Mike Thakur in a release. "Through IGNITE By WorkLodge, our goal is to serve as the invisible supporters, knowledgeable mentors, and loudest cheerleaders for our community's startups. We're happy to give one lucky business the freedom to focus on their meaningful work in an environment designed for growth."

IGNITE by WorkLodge also has a contest for nonprofits, which begins accepting applications on October 1. Last year's nonprofit winner was Mythiquer Pickett, founder of The Woodlands-based nonprofit, We See Abilities.

"Winning IGNITE By WorkLodge has greatly impacted We See Abilities — finally a place we can call home," Pickett says on the program's website. "Businesses, family, and friends can see we have an established imprint in the community with this brand-new office by WorkLodge."

WorkLodge was founded in 2015 in Houston. The company has two locations in Houston — one in The Woodlands and one in Vintage Park. Dallas has two locations, Fort Worth has one, and St. Petersburg, Florida, is sixth location and only office outside of Texas.

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Houston femtech co. debuts new lactation and wellness pods

mom pod

Houston-based femtech company Work&, previously known as Work&Mother, has introduced new products in recent months aimed at supporting working mothers and the overall health of all employees.

The company's new Lactation Pod and Hybrid Pod serve as dual-use lactation and wellness spaces to meet employer demand, the company shared in a news release. The compact pods offer flexible design options that can serve permanent offices and nearly all commercial spaces.

They feature a fully compliant lactation station while also offering wellness functionalities that can support meditation, mental health, telehealth and prayer. In line with Work&'s other spaces, the pods utilize the Work& scheduling platform, which prioritizes lactation bookings to help employers comply with the PUMP Act.

“This isn’t about perks,” Jules Lairson, Work& co-founder and COO, said in the release. “It’s about meeting people where they are—with dignity and intentional design. That includes the mother returning to work, the employee managing anxiety, and everyone in between.”

According to the company, several Fortune 500 companies are already using the pods, and Work& has plans to grow the products' reach.

Earlier this year, Work& introduced its first employee wellness space at MetroNational’s Memorial City Plazas, representing Work&'s shift to offer an array of holistic health and wellness solutions for landlords and tenants.

The company, founded in 2017 by Lairson and CEO Abbey Donnell, was initially focused on outfitting commercial buildings with lactation accommodations for working parents. While Work& still offers these services through its Work&Mother branch, the addition of its Work&Wellbeing arm allowed the company to also address the broader wellness needs of all employees.

The company rebranded as Work& earlier this year.

Rice biotech studio secures investment from Modi Ventures, adds founder to board

fresh funding

RBL LLC, which supports commercialization for ventures formed at the Rice University Biotech Launch Pad, has secured an investment from Houston-based Modi Ventures.

Additionally, RBL announced that it has named Sahir Ali, founder and general partner of Modi Ventures, to its board of directors.

Modi Ventures invests in biotech companies that are working to advance diagnostics, engineered therapeutics and AI-driven drug discovery. The firm has $134 million under management after closing an oversubscribed round this summer.

RBL launched in 2024 and is based out of Houston’s Texas Medical Center Helix Park. William McKeon, president and CEO of the TMC, previously called the launch of RBL a “critical step forward” for Houston’s life sciences ecosystem.

“RBL is dedicated to building companies focused on pioneering and intelligent bioelectronic therapeutics,” Ali said in a LinkedIn post. “This partnership strengthens the Houston biotech ecosystem and accelerates the transition of groundbreaking lab discoveries into impactful therapies.”

Ali will join board members like managing partner Paul Wotton, Rice bioengineering professor Omid Veiseh, scientist and partner at KdT Ventures Rima Chakrabarti, Rice alum John Jaggers, CEO of Arbor Biotechnologies Devyn Smith, and veteran executive in the life sciences sector James Watson.

Ali has led transformative work and built companies across AI, cloud computing and precision medicine. Ali also serves on the board of directors of the Drug Information Association, which helps to collaborate in drug, device and diagnostics developments.

“This investment by Modi Ventures will be instrumental to RBL’s growth as it reinforces confidence in our venture creation model and accelerates our ability to develop successful biotech startups,” Wotton said in the announcement. "Sahir’s addition to the board will also amplify this collaboration with Modi. His strategic counsel and deep understanding of field-defining technologies will be invaluable as we continue to grow and deliver on our mission.”