By Susan Schaul
We all benefit from medical innovation — the latest and greatest medical devices, health IT software, research results, technology, and prescription medication. They improve our health and lengthen our lives. With a team of physicians, researchers, entrepreneurs and inventors all behind these cutting-edge products, medical innovations also have the potential to produce new companies and jobs.
In many instances, earlier diagnosis, less pain, faster recovery time, less invasive surgery, and more exact body mapping result from these new innovations. Chronic disease symptoms can be managed under tighter control. Large amounts of information, like big data found in medical charts, are now more manageable for researchers. The new prescription medications are more targeted with fewer side effects. But how does the research, the new discoveries and therapeutics, get out of the lab and available to the public?
Cleveland Clinic Innovations (CCI), started in 2000, answers this question every day. They have developed an efficient model to facilitate getting through the cumbersome maze of technology transfer, compliance and approval, steering toward business launch. Innovation turns into an engine driving development and growth.
“We started with just a couple of people,” said Chris Coburn, executive director, “and now we have grown to 65 staff members who help Cleveland Clinic researchers and physicians take their discoveries to a higher level.” The next stage is either licensing their discovery with another company, or creating an independent start-up company based on their discovery. “It was slow-going at first, but we have gained momentum. The business cycle times have gotten shorter,” he added. Together, they navigate the obstacles and proceed forward toward commercialization and licensing. In addition, venture capitalists, other investors, government organizations and grant money have to be found to undertake these enterprises.
CCI acts as a business incubator for approximately 20 companies. The Global Cardiovascular Innovation Center (GCIC), formed in 2007 with a $60 million grant from the state of Ohio’s Third Frontier, is located together with CCI in their own building at E. 100th Street and Cedar Avenue, skirting the main Cleveland Clinic campus. This close location allows the start-up companies to have easy access of the Clinic’s resources. The medical experts are within easy reach for entrepreneurs to ask questions and find answers.
Some of the larger companies born at CCI include Explorys, Cleveland Heart Inc., and Autonomic Technologies. Explorys, founded in 2009, puts big data like medical charts on one platform so that the information can be uniformly “sliced and diced.” In other words, after scanning multiple charts, researchers can find patients with specific diagnoses and designated characteristics, and then learn what helped, what did not, and what were the results. Patterns in diseases, treatments, and outcomes can be identified across different hospital systems using different computer systems. Explorys recently outgrew its space at CCI and moved to the vacated Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) space on Carnegie Avenue.
Cleveland Heart Inc. is working to develop a type of artificial heart with the accompanying pieces and parts needed to make the device an effective replacement for the short term, waiting-for-transplantation period, or for the longer term if necessary. This includes the next generation of mechanical cardiac circulatory assist devices. Approximately 20 million people around the world suffer from heart failure, a terminal disease, and are waiting for other treatment choices to be developed.
Autonomic Technologies, voted to be second on the list of the Top Ten Medical Innovations for 2013 by a panel of Cleveland Clinic experts, is also located at CCI. Migraine and cluster headaches affect almost as many people as those suffering from common colds. Established in 2007 as the result of Cleveland Clinic research, this private company has developed a small implantable device to be placed in the patient’s gums to deliver stimulation to block the pain.
“We now have 55 spin-off companies since we started,” said Coburn with pride, “along with jobs to fill to support these endeavors. We have had many great supporters. The state of Ohio has awarded us $150+ million for research which has been critically important for our efforts and much appreciated.”
CCI is now involved in extending its reach through the Healthcare Innovation Alliance and collaborations with Ohio State University, explained Coburn. “Our goal,” he said, “is to knit together a national system of alliances under which we are responsible for promoting innovation and the commercialization.” Through the Healthcare Innovation Alliance, CCI is already connected with MedStar Health and a Washington DC-based network of hospital systems.
“To date, with over $700 million in equity investments in the CCI spin-off companies, investors are voting with their pocketbooks and truly respect our intention,” said Coburn. “Our team is committed to these medical innovations, to helping patients get well and maintain their health, and also to aid in the economic recovery of Northeast Ohio. I have been on the tech scene since the ’80s, and there has never been a better time of more promise, more momentum, or more opportunity than now.”
For more information, visit http://ClevelandClinic.org/innovations/default.htm.
From Cool Cleveland contributor Susan Schaul, who says the act of writing is like assembling a jigsaw puzzle. The challenge lies in getting the pieces to fit together and make sense.