OSF HealthCare is leading the charge to innovate in health care and ultimately creating value both community-wide and around the world. In collaboration with High Alpha Innovation, OSF approached focus areas like talent scarcity, patient navigation, health care in the home and modernizing enterprise tools, ultimately creating a venture studio approach to building new companies, optimizing resources, exploring new markets and pursuing transformative ideas.

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Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a chronic, inherited blood disease in which cells are shaped incorrectly and don’t function properly. One out of 13 Black Americans carry the sickle cell trait. There are more than 100,000 individuals across the country with this disease, which is marked by episodes of intense pain, frequent infections, vision problems, extreme fatigue, high stroke risk and mental health problems.

To address this, OSF HealthCare and High Alpha Innovation launched Marti, a software platform to improve communication and provide better access to optimal services, closing the gap in care that can also save an estimated $800 million per year in SCD-related costs across the U.S. health care system. Marti is led by co-founder and CEO Dr. Michael Smith, MD.

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