Seattle healthcare innovation hub Cambia Grove has transformed into something new: the Regence Health Policy Center.
Cambia Grove launched in 2015 to address barriers to healthcare innovation and break down silos between startups and established players in the market. It had a particular focus on entrepreneurship and also served as a community meeting place and co-working space.
The new center will focus on policy.
“Policymakers, subject matter experts and thought leaders across the industry must work together to solve and address the emerging challenges facing health care no matter the political landscape,” said the new center’s director Vince Porter in a welcome letter.
Porter previously served as director of government affairs for Oregon at Portland-based Cambia Health Solutions, which was behind Cambia Grove and owns Regence and other healthcare companies.
The new center will reveal its first focus area next week, and programming will follow in the next few months, said public policy specialist Nolan Jekich. The organization aims to “promote collaboration, inform policy, and develop solutions,” according to its website, launched Wednesday.
The policy center will build on Cambia Grove’s network of organizations and business to “inform, debate, and advance public policies that lower costs, improve access, and promote a more person-focused health care system,” added Jekich.
Cambia Grove assembled data resources on healthcare, generated reports on the innovation landscape, and held conferences on topics such as data interoperability across health systems. The hub also sponsored an annual Innovator Fellowship Program and launched a startup competition, which will be discontinued.
Cambia Grove’s 9,000 square-foot center in downtown Seattle featured a co-working space, but that stopped operating early in the pandemic and has yet to open again, joining other co-working spots in the city that suffered or closed during the pandemic.
The Regence Health Policy Center team plans to resume in-person events at the space in the future.
