Inova begins investment, accelerator programs

Hooks Johnston and Pete Jobse are leading two initiatives that have the same goal: Using innovation to improve patient outcomes and health-care operations at Falls Church-based Inova Health System.

They are the managing directors of Inova Strategic Investments and the Inova Personalized Health Accelerator. 

“Our goal is to seek out the latest technologies and get them quickly into the point of care at all of our facilities,” says Johnston, a co-founder and former general partner of the Vienna-based venture capital firm Valhalla Partners, which manages two funds totaling $440 million and has investments in 43 companies.

Jobse is the former CEO of the Herndon-based Center for Innovative Technology. At CIT, he created and led the Mach37 Cyber-Accelerator, the first cyber security-focused accelerator in the U.S.

Johnston and Jobse see the Inova initiatives as compelling career challenges. They could help make the “world a better place and provide significant value to the health system in improving patient outcome and driving economic development in Virginia,” Johnston says.

Inova Strategic Investments will invest in funds specializing in health-care and related technology ventures. It also will invest in companies aligned with Inova’s priorities, such as advanced analytics, innovations in safety and advances in information technology.

Inova Personalized Health Accelerator will assist in the development of startups focused on improving patient care, predicting and preventing disease, lowering costs and improving health outcomes.
“We are using a very panoramic view to take the health system to the forefront of technology,” Johnston says.

Inova Strategic Investments is expected to be up and running early this year. It has inherited a portfolio of six investments “We have made one investment already and we have two deals in the pipeline,” Jobse says.

He expects to see companies in the accelerator program working on data analytics and the next generation of health-related and diagnostic-related devices as well as sensor-based technology. “We also anticipate seeing devices such as sensor systems like the Apple watch that can be used to remotely monitor patients” after they have had operations, Jobse says.

Both programs are housed in the 117-acre Inova Center for Personalized Health campus, the former ExxonMobil headquarters located in Fairfax County. The health system bought the property in 2015 for $180 million.