Collaboration between OhioHealth and TechColumbus Helps Medical Professionals Become Entrepreneurs and Innovators

A unique collaborative relationship between OhioHealth Research & Innovation Institute (OHRI) and TechColumbus is helping medical personnel within the OhioHealth system commercialize their ideas into viable startups. 

Here’s how it works, OhioHealth professionals, who think they have a great idea for a new medical product or process, fill out a questionnaire about their product or idea. That's followed by an introductory meeting before an internal panel, which asks further questions and decides whether the idea has the potential for commercial uses. If it does, the idea is sent on for review by a joint TechColumbus/OHRI panel that meets every two weeks. If that panel views the idea favorably, a decision is made as to what kind of help is the most appropriate, which may include resources needed for market analysis, coaching, funding, or other help.

“Every doctor and nurse has good ideas,” says Wayne Poll, MD and director of innovation for OhioHealth.  “But 95 percent of those good ideas never get heard. Eighty or 90 ideas have seen the light of day during the last two years," he says. "That represents 80 or 90 people who previously had no idea where to go."

Some of the ideas that have resulted from the process include:

• The Linebacker system, a strap that replaces tape used to secure IVs which Cardinal Health just signed on for 800,000 units.
• A platform currently under development to aide in physical therapy treatments.
• And FloShield, a device for maintaining a clear laparoscopic lens during surgery.

The collaboration between OHRI and TechColumbus has been in place a little more than two years. 

For more information, see the story in hiVelocity.