Medical Entrepreneurship: A Cure for What's Ailing Health Care?
Health care is on most everyone's minds these days, from soaring costs to the government's proper role in the industry. The future of health care is hard to gauge, but one thing seems certain: The prognosis for entrepreneurs in health care-related fields is decidedly upbeat. Small businesses are gaining a foothold in a broad array of medical technology and health care industries. In a recent study of the fastest-growing industries by Sageworks, a Raleigh, North Carolina, financial analysis company, it was found that three of the top 10 categories are health care-related: home health care, pharmaceutical and medical manufacturing, and outpatient care.
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Spinoff tests positive for growth
As if 2010 hadn't been kind enough to Cleveland HeartLab LLC, the Cleveland Clinic spinoff just won its biggest contract, which should help the 1-year-old startup make sure its rapid growth continues into 2011. Rapid might be an understatement. The company, which tests blood samples and other specimens to help doctors determine whether a patient is at risk of a heart attack or other cardiac problems, ran 200 tests in January. It ran 18,000 tests in October.
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Athersys to license stem cell technology to Fla. firm
Athersys Inc. of Cleveland has agreed to license adult stem cell technologies to a Florida biotechnology company that will use them to isolate and preserve cells from organ and tissue donors. RTI Biologics Inc. of Alachua, Fla., will pay Athersys $3 million up front and another $2 million if RTI meets goals related to the development and commercialization of bone graft substitutes that would use the technology. Athersys (Nasdaq: ATHX) could receive up to $35.5 million more if the product is commercially successful, putting the total potential value of the deal at $40.5 million.
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Simulating real life
The surgeries are simulated. The jobs, the sales, the opportunity — those are real. Simbionix USA Corp., a company that makes virtual reality-style equipment used to train surgeons and medical students, has expanded its Cleveland headquarters and is in the process of launching two new lines of business. The company has moved a handful of positions from its Denver office to its recently expanded headquarters in the Baker Electric Building on Euclid Avenue. Simbionix plans to add four or five people to that group, which will form its new medical education division.
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Simbionix gets FDA nod for medical simulator software
The Food and Drug Administration has cleared for sale the PROcedure Rehearsal Studio software of Simbionix USA Corp. in Cleveland, Ohio — opening the door to advanced simulation technologies for practicing clinicians. The software is used to transfer imaging data from a medical scanner, such as a CT scanner, to an output file. It also is used as pre-operative software to simulate and evaluate surgical treatment options. Simbionix makes medical training simulators.
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Simbionix to move education division to Cleveland
Medical education company Simbionix USA Corp. plans to relocate employees from Denver, Colorado, to consolidate the company’s education division in its newly expanded Cleveland headquarters. While any job growth in Northeast Ohio is certainly welcome news, it’s unclear how many jobs the move will bring. Closely held Simbionix is still working out the details, and an executive wouldn’t say how many workers it employs in Denver. The company is making the move to streamline operations in its growing education division and facilitate collaboration among employees, said Paul Jensen, general manager of the division.
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Cleveland HeartLab business has ‘exploded’ (in a good way)
In the words of Cleveland HeartLab CEO Jake Orville, business has “exploded” since the beginning of the year, just months after his company launched a proprietary test for cardiac inflammation under a fee-for-service model. Cleveland HeartLab is a CLIA-certified and CAP-accredited reference lab that does an array of lipid and inflammation tests for clients. The Cleveland Clinic spun off the company with a cardiac inflammation biomarker developed by Dr. Stanley Hazen and his colleagues there.
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Simbionix expands offices in Cleveland and Israel
Fueled by growing demand for its medical simulation technology, Simbionix is expanding the size of its corporate headquarters in Cleveland and moving into a new research and development facility in Israel. Part of what’s driving the company’s growth is its medical education division, which announced two new hires in June. The education division develops curriculum and training materials that help doctors and other medical professionals learn how to use the company’s simulators. The company’s simulators teach users how to perform medical procedures in a wide variety of areas, including urology, cardiology and laparoscopy.
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Cleveland Clinic Innovations starts next decade with 33 companies
Cleveland Clinic Innovations — the corporate venturing arm of the nation’s top heart hospital — is entering its second decade with a first-of-its-kind venture ranking, a brand-new incubator building and a growing portfolio of spin-out companies. Perhaps most impressive, those companies — 33 in all — have attracted more than $340 million in follow-on funding from other investors. “That’s a darn good number” for a 10-year-old innovations group whose average spin-off is about five years old, said Harry Rein, chairman of the group’s Industrial Advisory Board and a veteran venture capitalist.
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Simbionix expands offices in Cleveland and Israel
Fueled by growing demand for its medical simulation technology, Simbionix is expanding the size of its corporate headquarters in Cleveland and moving into a new research and development facility in Israel. Part of what’s driving the company’s growth is its medical education division, which announced two new hires in June. The education division develops curriculum and training materials that help doctors and other medical professionals learn how to use the company’s simulators. The company’s simulators teach users how to perform medical procedures in a wide variety of areas, including urology, cardiology and laparoscopy.
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Case Western Reserve University Receives $5 Million Ohio Third Frontier Grant
Case Western Reserve University and its primary affiliate, University Hospitals Case Medical Center, recently announced that they will establish a Global Advanced Imaging Innovation Center in partnership with Philips Healthcare. The Center, to be based at University Hospitals Case Medical Center, is funded in part by a $5 million Ohio Third Frontier Commission grant to Case Western Reserve University. Philips Healthcare will invest an additional $33.4 million in the Center.
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Philips Healthcare, State of Ohio Announce Global Advanced Imaging Innovation Center
A $33.5 million commitment by Philips Healthcare and a $5 million Third Frontier grant from the state of Ohio will provide researchers at Case Western Reserve University, University Hospitals Case Medical Center, and Philips an opportunity to create medical imaging systems that will detect disease far earlier and be safer for patients than current methods. The company and state announced the creation of the Global Advanced Imaging Innovation Center, to be housed at the University Hospitals Case Medical Center campus, at the same press conference where Gov. Ted Strickland designated Cleveland’s Health-Tech Corridor a state Hub of Innovation and Opportunity yesterday.
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Philips Healthcare imaging center promises innovations
The recently announced Philips Healthcare Global Advanced Imaging Innovation Center could bolster Northeast Ohio’s reputation as a hub for innovation in medical imaging technology. But it also could do a lot for the research and clinical radiology practices at University Hospitals Case Medical Center, where the center will be housed. The $38.4 million partnership of Philips, University Hospitals and Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) ’ supported by a $5 million Ohio Third Frontier grant — was announced a few weeks ago.
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Philips Healthcare to invest $33M in imaging center at UH Case Medical Center
Medical-imaging maker Philips Healthcare will open a $38.4 million Global Advanced Imaging Innovatin Center at University Hospitals Case Medical Center. At the news conference, Gov. Ted Strickland also awarded a $250,000 grant to the new Cleveland Health Tech Corridor, a stretch of real estate that runs from Cleveland State University on the west through University Circle.
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Explorys could help harness health care cost, quality reforms
Companies like Explorys Medical Inc. could benefit from–and help harness–key health care reform efforts to reduce cost and raise the quality of patient care. Launched last year by two data management veterans in collaboration with the Cleveland Clinic, Explorys has hired 11 employees–filling its University Circle storefront office– and snagged a $17.6 million, 10-year job creation tax credit from Ohio for potentially creating more than 300 jobs.
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CardioInsight Raises $6 million