Wisconsin has a strong healthcare and hospital system presence, anchored by major health systems in Milwaukee and Madison, which has helped fuel a growing base of health tech startups. Companies building products for hospitals, clinics, or patients typically need to work within, or alongside, a well-established set of healthcare technology platforms. Here are several worth knowing in 2026.
Epic Systems
Epic Systems, headquartered in Verona, Wisconsin, is one of the largest electronic health record (EHR) providers in the country, used by many major hospital systems. For a Wisconsin health tech startup, Epic integration, through its App Orchard developer platform, is often a necessary step to reach hospital customers already running Epic’s software.
Cerner (Oracle Health)
Cerner, now part of Oracle Health, is Epic’s largest competitor in the EHR space and remains widely used across hospital systems nationally. Startups building interoperability or clinical workflow tools often need to support both Epic and Oracle Health environments to reach a meaningful share of the hospital market.
Twilio
Twilio’s communications APIs are commonly used by health tech startups to build appointment reminders, telehealth notifications, and secure messaging features, since building this infrastructure from scratch would require significant engineering effort and compliance work.
Redox
Redox provides a standardized integration layer that simplifies connecting a health tech product to various hospital EHR systems, reducing the custom engineering work typically required for each individual health system integration. It’s a common tool for startups trying to scale across multiple hospital customers without building dozens of one-off integrations.
Navigating Healthcare Technology as a Wisconsin Startup
Health tech startups face a uniquely complex integration landscape compared to most other industries, since reaching hospital customers usually means working with entrenched systems like Epic or Oracle Health rather than building a fully greenfield product. Tools like Redox can meaningfully reduce that integration burden, while Twilio handles the communications layer many patient-facing products need. For related startup tooling, see our guides to top computer and IT software tools for startups and top information services and data tools for startups.
Why is Epic Systems significant for Wisconsin health tech startups?
Epic Systems is headquartered in Verona, Wisconsin, and is one of the largest electronic health record providers used by major hospital systems nationally, making integration with Epic important for many health tech products.
Do health tech startups need to integrate with multiple EHR systems?
Often yes, since different hospitals use different EHR platforms like Epic or Oracle Health (formerly Cerner), reaching a broad hospital customer base typically requires supporting more than one system.
What does a tool like Redox do for health tech startups?
Redox provides a standardized integration layer between health tech products and various hospital EHR systems, reducing the custom engineering work needed for each individual integration.
Why do health tech companies use Twilio?
Twilio’s communications APIs let health tech companies build features like appointment reminders and secure patient messaging without building telecommunications infrastructure from scratch.
