TEDCO’s Entrepreneur Expo to Host “From Discovery to Healthcare Delivery” Panel

Session will feature leaders from Welldoc, Optimoz and 1104health, moderated by Ricardo Benn of the Maryland Department of Commerce

COLUMBIA, Md., (October 13, 2026) — TEDCO, Maryland’s economic engine for technology companies, announces the “From Discovery to Healthcare Delivery: How Maryland Powers the Computational Health Lifecycle” session at the upcoming 2026 Entrepreneur Expo taking place at the Hilton Baltimore Inner Harbor on October 27, 2026.

The session will bring together Marina Dorotheo, chief marketing and strategy officer of Welldoc, a Columbia-based digital health company that builds AI-powered tools for managing diabetes and other cardiometabolic conditions; Naresh Patel, president and CEO of Optimoz, a Bethesda digital transformation firm whose health IT work spans HIPAA-compliant platforms and HL7 FHIR data interoperability for enterprises and federal agencies; and Rose Wang, founder and CEO of 1104health, a digital health company that connects community oncologists with academic medical centers and brings clinical trial options directly into physicians’ workflows. The conversation will be moderated by Ricardo Benn, deputy secretary of the Maryland Department of Commerce, who leads the department’s Division of Innovation and Growth.

The distance between a scientific discovery and a patient receiving care runs through an enormous amount of data. Samples have to be tracked, biomarkers analyzed, trials matched to the right patients and records made interoperable across systems that were never designed to talk to one another, all of it under regulatory requirements that leave little room for error. Maryland companies work at every stage of that chain. This session follows the computational health lifecycle from the laboratory bench to the point of care.

“Maryland is one of the few places in the country where you can see the entire health innovation lifecycle, from federal research to clinical trials to the point of care, within a single state,” said Benn. “The companies on this panel show how data and AI are connecting those stages, and that’s exactly the kind of growth we want to accelerate here.”

Panelists will discuss where the handoffs between research, development and delivery break down, what it takes to move health data reliably and securely between systems, and how AI is changing both the speed and the scrutiny applied at each stage. Attendees will leave with a clearer view of where Maryland companies are building in this space and where the opportunities remain.

Few states are better positioned for this work. Maryland ranks second nationally in federal R&D obligations at $21.5 billion and first per capita, according to FY2024 data from the National Science Foundation. The state is home to 474 federal labs, more than any other state, including the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. That concentration of research, regulatory and clinical capacity in one state makes the full lifecycle visible here in a way it is not in many places.

TEDCO’s award-winning Entrepreneur Expo shines a spotlight on regional entrepreneurship. Attracting more than 1,170 attendees, the event collects some of the region’s top entrepreneurs, business owners, innovators, venture capital investors, legislators and resources for a day of celebration.

Don’t miss the opportunity to learn from the region’s top experts, including keynote guests Tamla Olivier and TEDCO’s very own Troy LeMaile-Stovall; secure your spot at this impactful event now at tedcomdexpo.com/event/2026/register.