Jeffrey Carr, most recently the entrepreneur-in-residence at a startup incubator, has joined Mercy Health as the health system's first chief innovation officer, the health system announced Tuesday.

Mercy Health, a Catholic healthcare system, serves Ohio and Kentucky with 21 hospitals in Ohio and two in Kentucky. In his new role, Carr will be responsible for fostering a culture of innovation and investment throughout the system, officials said.

"With more than 18 years of technology, consulting and executive experience, Jeff Carr understands the importance of developing strategic, innovative approaches to strengthen an organization," said Drew Banks, Mercy Health's chief strategy officer and Carr's boss, in a statement.

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Before joining Mercy Health, Carr worked as entrepreneur-in-residence at Cintrifuse, which provides services to Cincinnati's burgeoning start-up community. He mentored start-ups, led the effort to create a digital health venture studio and also supported a number of the region's leading organizations working with innovative startups.

Carr was one of the founders of the startup Intelemage, which was acquired in April by Medidata, the SaaS technology company that specializes in developing and marketing a cloud-based platform of applications and data analytics to address operations throughout clinical trials.

Early in his career, he was one of the leaders at Zoomtown, the high-speed internet access company and startup incubator whose model closely mirrors the open innovation approach he will take at Mercy Health.

He has also served as a senior vice president and chief technology officer at Cincinnati Bell, where he led the sale of Cincinnati Bell Wireless to Verizon. Other positions included chief information security officer at GE Aviation, and senior executive at Accenture.