About Us
The iLab began in 2017 as a partnership between like-minded healthcare leaders who recognized that to innovate healthcare, new technologies would need a more efficient, more effective path to market adoption and insurance reimbursement. To meet the challenge, founding members Aspire Ventures, Capital Blue Cross, Clio Health, and Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health designed a unique lab and iLab program to give startups mentorship from a network of experts, a testing environment to validate their products, and access to enterprise-level opportunities with a network of providers and payors. The Smart Health Innovation Lab is now helping startups accelerate their growth and fast-track their innovations to transform healthcare.

“The iLab will help launch new and imaginative technologies that will redefine the healthcare experience and improve the health status of patients around the world. We are proud to be a founder of an entity that is forward-thinking and focused on bringing game-changing ideas to the healthcare market locally, nationally, and globally.”
– Jennifer Chambers, MD, MBA, FACP;
Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer,
Capital Blue Cross
Founding Members
Aspire Ventures, an Aspire Universal Company, is a venture capital firm focused on transforming industries and impact investment with breakthrough technologies. Aspire Ventures leverages its capital, intellectual property and domain expertise to help bring innovations to market faster and more cost effectively for the benefit of people worldwide.

Aspire Ventures has developed A2I, an adaptive artificial intelligence platform, to help its portfolio companies offer innovative mobile, cloud, and machine learning solutions for a variety of industry sectors, most notably healthcare. Aspire Ventures is leading several initiatives to create a patient-centered model in healthcare powered by precision medicine technologies.
Capital Blue Cross, headquartered in Harrisburg, Pa., is the leading health solutions and insurance company in Central Pennsylvania and the Lehigh Valley. A partner in the community’s health for over 80 years, Capital Blue Cross offers health insurance products, services, and technology solutions that provide peace of mind to consumers and promote health and wellness for our customers.

More than a health insurer, the company delivers innovative solutions through a family of diversified businesses that is creating a healthier future and lowering health care costs. Among these solutions are patient-focused care models, leading-edge data analytics, and digital health technologies. Additionally, Capital Blue Cross is growing a network of Capital Blue Cross Connect health and wellness centers that provide in-person service and inspiration to help people reach their health goals. Capital Blue Cross is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association.
Clio Health is a digital health network, using apps, AI, and revolutionary devices to improve healthy life expectancy and impact population health.
Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health (LG Health), a member of the University of Pennsylvania Health System, is a not-for-profit health system with a comprehensive network of care, including more than 300 primary-care and specialty physicians; outpatient and Urgent Care services; and four hospitals with a total of 786 licensed beds: Lancaster General Hospital (LGH), Women & Babies Hospital, Lancaster Rehabilitation Hospital, and Lancaster Behavioral Health Hospital. Our membership in Penn Medicine brings together the strengths of a world-renowned, not-for-profit academic medical center and a nationally recognized, not-for-profit community health care system.
Our Team
Kim Ireland
CEO
Board Chairperson
CIO,
Aspire Ventures
Allen Cubell
VP Health System Strategy
Executive Director, Innovation Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health
Stacy Balaban
VP Payor Strategy
Board Vice Chairperson
VP, Business Development and Strategic Partnerships,
Capital Blue Cross
Essam Abadir
Board Observer
Founder and CEO,
Aspire Ventures
Todd Bartos
Corporate Secretary and General Counsel
General Counsel,
Aspire Ventures
Scott Schell, MD
Board Member
Chief Medical Officer,
Clio Health
Brian Burgess
Board Treasurer
Chief Strategy Officer, Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health
Jennifer Chambers, MD
Board Observer
Senior Vice President & Chief Medical Officer, Capital Blue Cross
Victor Owuor

Board Observer
Chief Product and AI Officer,
Clio Health