Cedars-Sinai Medical Center has hired health care business veteran Anne Wellington to lead its business accelerator program, the hospital announced May 11.

Wellington was named managing director of the Cedars-Sinai Accelerator Powered by Techstars that offers mentoring and financial backing for early-stage health care companies.

She replaces Omkar P. Kulkarni, who helped launch the Beverly Grove hospital accelerator program two years ago and left to serve as the first chief innovation officer for Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.

“As more health systems follow Cedars-Sinai’s lead in fostering innovation through accelerators, we will be growing to expand our leadership role in this space,” said Darren Dworkin, senior vice president and chief information officer, in a statement. “Anne will be working to ensure we continue to attract top-tier companies.”

The 90-day business development program provides 10 companies with $120,000 each in financial backing along with training, mentors, access to world-class doctors and executives and exposure to a global entrepreneurial network.

At the end of three months, the firms parade their products at a “Shark Tank”-style demo day for investors.

Last fall, Wellington served as its entrepreneur in residence. In July, she will preside over its fourth class, with the aim of helping each company build businesses that solve real-world problems in health care delivery.

She has a broad background in operating experience. She served as chief product officer and founding team member at Stanson Health, a healthcare analytics firm based in Los Angeles. She also provided health care product expertise for such firms as Advisory Board Co. based in Washington.

She began her career at Epic Systems Corp., supporting electronic health record implementation nationwide, before helping Cedars-Sinai launch its electronic medical record system in 2011.

Health business reporter Dana Bartholomew can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @_DanaBart.