The Texas Medical Center is one step closer to narrowing down its next TMCx cohort. It will be the first group of startups for the accelerator following an overhaul and redesign of the program that was announced last year.

TMCx has identified 19 companies from around the world to attend a two-week bootcamp within the TMC. At the conclusion of the two weeks, TMCx will select its 2020 cohort, which will then go through a six-month accelerator program.

While TMCx has been accelerating digital health and medical device startups for five years, this is the first year the program has taken this approach. The TMCx team first announced these changes on its last demo day in November. The program redesign was put into motion in order to find startups and technologies that solve the problems and challenges that TMC institutions face.

"The TMCx team is razor-focused on ensuring X companies find a landing spot here in the TMC," says Lance Black, associate director at TMCx. "Our north star metric is agreements between the startup and the member institution. With this as our determiner of success, we need to be intimately familiar with not only what the startups are doing but with what our hospitals need."

The TMCx team selected this batch of 19 startups based on their ability to hit the ground running at TMC, Black explains, and the two-week bootcamp will be filled with customer meetings, in-hospital exploration, social events, and educational programming.

"From these bootcamp participants, we are looking for companies who are ready to have meaningful conversations with their customers on day 1," Black says. "The access to enterprise health systems here in Houston is like no other place in the world, so TMCx is focused on curating these conversations and subsequent relationships so our member institutions are truly able to remain cutting edge."

Ultimately, Black says, his team is looking for the companies ready to "show up" for the TMC's member institutions.

"One of the most exciting aspects of TMCx's new phase is how we are now working hand-in-hand with the offices of innovation and internal champions of our member institutions to investigate needs and scour the globe for the best solutions," Black explains. "This community is one of collaborators and TMCx is a proud partner in improving the quality of life for patients."

Here are the health tech startups participating in the TMCx bootcamp this month:

• San Francisco-based Atlas Health connects patients with payment resources.
• Austin-based CareStarter automates and scales care management.
• Houston-based CaseCtrl is a surgical case management platform.
• San Francisco-based DeepScribe is an autonomous medical scribe.
• Austin-based Diligent Robotics created a clinical robot assistant.
• Los Angeles-based Elly allows users to live healthier through positivity.
• San Francisco-based Ferrum reduces preventable medical errors.
• San Antonio-base GaitIQ evaluates gait in primary care.
• Toronto-based HelpWear is a clinical grade wearable heart monitor.
• Pessac, France-based inHEART combines imaging and electrocardiology technologies.
• London-based Lantum is a total workforce solution for healthcare.
• Denver-based Manatee has created connected, everyday therapy for kids.
• Cupertino, California-based Pyrames is a continuous, non-invasive blood pressure monitoring system.
• Copenhagen-based Radiobotics automates analysis of routine medical X-rays.
• Philadelphia-based Repisodic is a discharge planning solution.
• Evanston, Illinois-based Rheos is a wearable shunt monitor.
• College Station-based Solenic Medical eliminates biofilm on metallic implants.
• Melbourne-based TALi can assess and strengthen attention in early childhood.
• New York-based Yosi is creating the waiting room of the future.