Bridging academia and industry, UNF health care program to tackle nonprofit challenges (Courtesy of the Jacksonville Business Journal) — Poised at the cross section of health care and innovation, MedNexus — the University of North Florida’s health education initiative — is partnering with Jacksonville-based telemedicine provider Telescope Health to solve real-world challenges facing nonprofits.
It’s the launch of what its leaders hope will be an annual program connecting teams of UNF’s honors college students with specifically health care nonprofit organizations, under the mentorship of Telescope Health’s professionals.
Though the partnership won’t technically begin till spring 2026, MedNexus Associate Dean Julie Merten told the Business Journal that two of the four possible nonprofits have already been selected: the American Heart Association and Ronald McDonald House.
Students will be assigned different cases for the nonprofits and immerse themselves in the organization in the spring.
“We want to set it apart from maybe a shadowing experience — we want them to implement (the solution),” said Merten. “We don’t want them to leave and just tell the nonprofit, ‘here’s what you should do, this is a good idea.’ We want the students to implement it and take action on it.”
The idea is that students will have the semester to evaluate, solve and implement solutions to critical social and health challenges facing such nonprofits across the Northeast Florida region.
Telescope Health and UNF have been intertwined for years, and many of the health care company’s leaders have taught courses at the school and served on various leadership boards.
Matthew Thompson, co-founder of Telescope Health and chief executive officer, called the UNF partnership a very “natural fit.”
Telescope’s involvement includes mentoring students and providing resources, with plans for future collaborations in AI and population health data research, Thompson explained.
Founded in 2018, Telescope Health was born of an emergency room staffing company and the desire to create easier access to health care without putting a strain on existing systems. Today, it operates nationwide.
“Some of these things, in the olden days, sustainability was the challenge,” Merten said. “Now, with technology, these students can leave something that could sustain itself long after the semester is over.”
In the long-term, the partnership is aimed at preparing students for innovative health care roles, particularly in an increasingly technology-driven world.
Broadly, Merten sees the partnership as an opportunity to get at the core of what she calls teaching ‘the leaders of tomorrow.’
“The leaders of tomorrow are not going to be knowledge based,” she said. “They’re going to be the students that can connect the dots — can adapt, can be agile and can be curious. Those are the people that will survive in the new work space.”
Photo courtesy of MedNexus – UNF
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