Maria Clara Mesa Abad prefers to see healthcare framed through the lens of joy and connection. Committed to humanizing care through technology, she leads Alternova, an early stage company designing and building digital health solutions that blend gaming expertise with healthcare innovation and strategic investment. Her work highlights how wellness and entertainment can intersect to create better outcomes for patients. Alternova brings this vision to life by applying game mechanics, immersive design, and rigorous engineering to healthcare tools so they are engaging and effective. This makes them more appealing for patients to use consistently, leading to better adherence and ultimately more effective results.
Since its inception, the company has evolved to act as both builder and investor. Today, Alternova helps founders with bold ideas turn them into practical solutions that can make healthcare better for patients. “Our hybrid model is not only about building software but also about backing vision with resources. By blending engineering with investment, we can help healthtech founders scale ideas that matter.”
From Builder to Co-Creator
Over the past six years, Mesa Abad and her team at Alternova have collaborated with institutions such as MIT, UCSF, Dana-Farber, and Stanford. Their projects have ranged from digital therapeutics to decentralized clinical trial platforms, united by an uncanny ability to infuse healthcare with the kind of design thinking and playful interaction typically reserved for gaming. “We’ve always believed that taking care of ourselves shouldn’t be scary,” says Mesa Abad. “It should be fun, seamless, and human.”
Now, Alternova is expanding its role beyond software development. The company is launching a venture arm, stepping into the role of investor and co-creator alongside early stage healthtech founders. “We’re not just writing checks,” she says. “We are bringing a team. Our engineers, designers, and strategists become your product team. We co-build with you side by side while you fundraise, pivot, and grow.”
Engineering Meets Investment
This new hybrid model is helping to accelerate promising ideas. Having shepherded dozens of digital health companies from concept through clinical validation to commercialization, the team understands the technical, regulatory, and human challenges that founders face. “What makes the difference is when a development partner truly believes in the mission and has some skin in the game,” she says. By combining capital with hands-on engineering, Alternova offers not only financial backing but also the operational expertise needed to de-risk innovation. This approach appeals to founders working on complex problems, particularly those tackling sensitive areas such as mental health, neurodiversity, parenting, and end-of-life care — spaces Mesa Abad believes “hold the greatest opportunities for transformation in healthcare.”
The Playful Side of Wellbeing
A distinguishing feature of Alternova’s work is its use of video game mechanics to drive engagement. Mesa Abad, who is interested in products that support kids’ wellbeing, music, neurodiversity, and even psychedelic-assisted therapies, views play as an essential part of health. “Technology should be built so we spend less time on screens and more time building community and real relationships,” she says.
By incorporating game-based interventions and interactive design, Alternova makes digital health solutions that feel less like clinical tools and more like companions in everyday life. This philosophy resonates with a growing movement in healthtech that emphasizes user experience as much as clinical efficacy. For Mesa Abad, the two are inseparable. “We care deeply about the products we build and the people they’re meant to help,” she says. “That’s why design, accessibility, and joy are at the center of what we do.”
A Human-Centered Future
Her vision for the future of healthcare is one where innovation is inclusive, fun, and rooted in community-based care. An advocate for diversity in technology and ethical applications of AI, Mesa Abad is also an angel and venture investor. In many ways, her work embodies the shift from transactional models of healthcare technology to participatory ones. By backing early stage founders and embedding her team in their journey, Mesa Abad is creating a model that prioritizes long-term impact over short-term gains. “For me, this work is about reimagining how people experience health and wellbeing,” says Mesa Abad. “It’s not only solving problems but creating systems that help people thrive through engineering excellence and playful, human-centered design.”
Learn more about Maria Clara Mesa Abad on LinkedIn and her website. For more information about Alternova, visit their website.
