Independence Blue Cross launching health IT center in Center City

Health IT has a new homebase in Center City.

Health insurance company Independence Blue Cross is opening a 5,000 square foot “Center for Healthcare Innovation” at 1700 Market Street, it announced this week. The following groups will use the center:

• DreamIt Health 2014, the accelerator with which IBC is a partner
• University health research collaborations, like a Penn Medicine/IBC study on how mobile technology can help people remember to take medication
• IBC’s health IT portfolio companies. IBC is investing up to $50 million in health startups, including the DreamIt Health companies, in a five- to seven-year time frame.

The space is also hosting the first Health Care Innovation Task Force, run by the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce.

No IBC employees will be based at the center, at least for now, IBC said through a spokeswoman.

IBC first dipped a toe into the tech scene by partnering with DreamIt Ventures to launch DreamIt Health, an accelerator that’s been largely successful in keeping its companies in Philadelphia. The launch of the center feels like IBC liked its role in that partnership and wanted more. IBC seems to believe in Philly’s health IT startup sector, saying that the city can, with the help of this new center, become the “Silicon Valley of healthcare innovation.”