SAN FRANCISCO – Health Evolution Partners has launched a network that will serve as an investment fund for financing healthcare innovations and boosting their presence in mainstream health practices. The organization has kicked off the launch by donating $200 million to the network.

The Heath Evolution Partners Innovation Network, or HEPIN, is aimed at early stage and venture companies.  

"We face a troubling innovation gap in healthcare," said David J. Brailer, MD, chairman of Health Evolution Partners. "Too few of our biomedical discoveries make it into daily practice because we organize and deliver care the same way we did 100 years ago."

Health Evolution Partners has appointed Roy Ziegler to head HEPIN's early stage investment activity and the following advisors to support investment activities:

• Richard H. Carmona, MD, former U.S. Surgeon General, Vice Chairman of Canyon Ranch, President of Canyon Ranch Institute and a professor at the Zuckerman College of Public Health at the University of Arizona;

• David M. Lawrence, MD, former chairman and CEO of Kaiser Permanente;

• Arnold Milstein, MD, co-founder of The Leapfrog Group;

• and Molly J. Coye, MD, founder and CEO of The Health Technology Center.