UC grad’s innovative tech to manage ER wait times

1819 Innovation Hub facilitates health care startup launch

By Stephen Kenney Email Stephen

5 minute read June 25, 2024

As an incoming bioengineering student, Jason Murray never thought he’d graduate with a strong understanding of venture capital or with a promising health care startup of his own.

That’s precisely what happened, though, due to his connection with the University of Cincinnati’s Center for Entrepreneurship.

Murray had loosely been pursuing a health care idea after a chance meeting with Atlanta, Georgia-based emergency room (ER) medic Miranda Baras on an engineering co-op. Working alongside staff at UC’s Center for Entrepreneurship and faculty at the College of Engineering and Applied Science (CEAS), Murray gained confidence in the potential of his and Baras’ idea.

Soon after, Teravus was founded. The startup’s mission is to closely monitor patients in ER waiting rooms, allowing health care providers to tailor interventions more efficiently. The company’s name, which comes from the Estonian term for “sharpness,” speaks to its goal of focused triage management.

Harnessing AI for better health care

Jason Murray. Photo/Jason Murray

According to Murray, “Teravus is using a contactless biometric monitoring system to alert health care providers of patient decompensation.” At the same time, Teravus “gathers data analytics to enhance overall patient satisfaction during the waiting period.”

The inspiration for Teravus came from Baras, whose father experienced a health crisis due to delayed medical care in the emergency room. Hospitals often face triage prioritization issues, leading to unpredictable wait times and trouble managing patient loads.

Where patients and administrators identified problems, Murray envisioned an innovative solution: implementing artificial intelligence (AI) to prioritize patients based on the urgency of their conditions and wait time length.

From developing dreams to building a business

Murray knew how to prioritize patients in the hospital emergency room but needed to learn strategies for launching his and Baras’ new company. He turned to the Venture Lab, a startup incubator and part of UC’s 1819 Innovation Hub.

Teravus moved through the Venture Lab business pre-accelerator and won third place in the 2023 New Venture Championship. Later that year, Murray signed up for Venture Lab NEXT and met health care entrepreneur-in-residence Kim Chin, who joined Teravus’ advisory board.

A watershed moment for Teravus was when Murray met globally recognized physician, entrepreneur and UC alumnus Marvin Slepian, MD, at an event hosted by UC’s 1819 Innovation Hub. Slepian joined Teravus as a co-founder, giving the startup an esteemed proponent in the health care field.

Participating in the Center for Entrepreneurship and 1819 Venture Lab programs provided invaluable knowledge and experience.

Jason Murray Co-founder, Teravus

Murray credits much of his entrepreneurial success to the plethora of resources available through UC. “Participating in the Center for Entrepreneurship and 1819 Venture Lab programs provided invaluable knowledge and experience,” Murray said. A few of his favorite aspects were the weekly tracking of key performance indicators and the accountability given by cohort and faculty members.

“We are excited by the lifesaving potential that Teravus offers in patient vitals monitoring and look forward to continually supporting this team as they bring their disruptive technology to the health care market,” said Kate Harmon, assistant vice president of UC’s Office of Innovation. “Watching co-founders Jason and Miranda build this company … is a perfect example of what our program and resources can offer UC founders.”

Teravus on track

Teravus logo. Photo/Teravus

As Teravus approaches its launch date, Murray is grateful for the $125,000 in funding and help he received from the UC Center for Entrepreneurship and the Venture Lab. He said Teravus employees are encouraged to “engage with the startup community and stay up to date with emerging technologies.” Murray believes the Venture Lab made those goals easy to achieve.

Murray graduated from UC in spring 2024 and will move to Boston, Massachusetts, later this summer to work for AstraZeneca. From that point, the Teravus team plans to conduct clinical trials and apply for nondilutive funding, with the goal of raising venture capital in early 2025.

Teravus may have moved to the next stage of its startup journey, but a new cohort of promising businesses is growing in the 1819 Innovation Hub. As these teams begin their own entrepreneurship journeys, they hope to replicate Teravus’ success as they dream up UC’s next great idea.

Featured image at top: Doctors chart patient records. Photo/Colleen Kelley

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