GPEC
WEARTECH
MedTech innovators perfect and create wearable technology
By ERIN THORBURN
H
ave you ever considered the possibility that wearable technology could vastly improve your life? The innovators at the WearTech Applied Research Center have. In fact, these entrepreneurs aren’t simply considering the health and lifestyle benefits of WearTech, they’re creating it. The WearTech Applied Research Center, a collaboration between Arizona State University and local government, economic and healthcare organizations, opened in October in the newly-renovated Park Central and is positioning the Phoenix metro area to be the hub of wearable technology innovation. The first-of-its-
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kind applied research center will support an entrepreneurial ecosystem to improve quality of life and human performance through the development of innovative wearable technologies. “Our goal with this institute is that we become proud Arizonans of an Arizonabased intellectual property generation,” said Chris Camacho, president and CEO of the Greater Phoenix Economic Council (GPEC). “It’s less about importing other states’ and other people’s technology and more about building our own.” With the help of a $750,000 grant that was awarded to GPEC from the U.S. Department of Commerce, Arizona’s
MedTech innovators are changing the way consumers, medical providers, and the world view health and technology. And, in doing so, they are expected to further brand Arizona as the most innovative and forwardthinking MedTech center in the nation. The foundation The WearTech grant originates from the Economic Development Administration’s 2018 Regional Innovation Strategies program competition and it aimed at accelerating wearable and medical technology entrepreneurship in Greater Phoenix. The distribution of funds will be facilitated by GPEC, the Center for