Austen BioInnovation Institute in Akron

ABIA Celebrates Successes, Future Plans at Inaugural Community Update

The Austen BioInnovation Institute in Akron held its inaugural Community Update on April 21 at the John S. Knight Center.  More than 350 attendees were given an in-depth look at ABIA’s purpose, progress and future plans. 

The event featured presentations by ABIA President and CEO Dr. Frank L. Douglas; Akron Children's Hospital Presidet and CEO William Considine, who serves as Chair of ABIA's Board of Directors; Akron Mayor Donald Plusquellic; Summit County Executive Russ Pry; and several ABIA leaders.

Those providing updates on current ABIA initiatives were the Medical Device Development Center’s Dr. Brian Davis; the Center for Clinical and Community Health Improvement's Dr. Janine Janosky; and the Center for Simulation and Healthcare Education's Dr. Mike Holder Jr.

Speaker Dennis Foldenauer of the U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration commended ABIA, its founding members, the City of Akron, and Summit County for coming together to create an environment for commercialization and innovation, unlike any other in our region.

The update provided the Akron community with insight into ABIA's strategy toward creating new economic opportunities for the City and surrounding region. 

ABIA Marshals Leaders from Government, Biomedical Industry, Academia Leaders to Spur Medical Device Innovation, Jobs

• Propose new industry-government group to help maintain quality of healthcare while restraining costs
• Medical device conference led by academic, industry and private sector leaders committed to a national strategy

With the aim of retaining America's lead in medical device development and innovation, ABIA has gathered leaders from industry, academia and the public and private sectors for the "Value-driven Engineering and U.S. Global Competitiveness" national initiative. Led by Dr. Frank L. Douglas, ABIA President and CEO, the effort is geared at providing researchers, device manufacturers and federal legislators with a pathway for industry action and public policy steps necessary to advance America's capabilities in the face of rising competition from global forces.  

The initiative kicked-off in March with a Safe Haven Summit held in Washington, D.C. A white paper currently is being developed to provide specific guidance to the White House and Congress, as well as industry, and is scheduled to be completed by summer.

“The U.S. must take creative and innovative steps to retain its lead in device development and continue to secure and create American jobs,” said Dr. Frank Douglas, ABIA President and CEO.  “Competitiveness begins at home, and it is reassuring to see so many leaders supporting efforts to grow America’s strength in this important area. As the rate of globalization and integration accelerates, the landscape for medical device innovation becomes more complex. It is important that those at the federal level recognize these challenges and encourage opportunities to improve the future of our country, businesses, innovators and workers.”

Aneesh Chopra, U.S. Chief Technology Officer and Associate Director for Technology at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, delivered keynote remarks and applauded the initiative as another step forward in ensuring that the United States will continue to out-innovate its economic competitors in the 21st century.

Former House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt, now President and CEO of Gephardt Government Affairs, emphasized that the critical need for public-private collaboration to ensure that the nation continues to invest in medical innovation. “Medical innovation is a key driver in our economic engine, but equally important, investment in medical innovation is about health,” Gephardt said at the Summit. “The time is now to frame a new national imperative that joins the forces of the public and private sectors to sustain our country’s vibrant medical innovation ecosystem and ensures our return on this shared investment through improved health for generations to come.”

The initiative’s steering committee, led by Dr. Douglas and the Akron-based ABIA, includes leaders from Johns Hopkins University, Harvard- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Medtronic, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering of the National Institutes of Health, Orthopaedic Research Laboratories, Stanford University and The University of Akron.

“Akron is home to world-class researchers and educators, business leaders and entrepreneurs and has earned its designation as a Hub of Biomaterials Innovation and a Center of Excellence for Biomedicine and Health Care. ABIA is at the center of what are keys to our nation’s economic competitiveness:  innovation and manufacturing,” said Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio. “I’m confident that the policies and proposals resulting from the Summit will ultimately help ensure that high-quality, low-cost medical technologies are created right here in America.”

The steering committee will continue to focus on tackling obstacles facing U.S. industry and innovators by monitoring and developing vital research, analysis and pre-competitive opportunity space and projects.

"It is critical we bring the perspectives of public and private institutions together to form a national initiative on our innovation plans. Working together we can develop technology solutions that help address the rising demands on our healthcare system," said Mike Hess, Vice President of Innovation Excellence at Medtronic and a member of the initiative steering committee.

“For the U.S. to remain at the forefront of medical technology innovation that benefits individuals in the U.S. as well as around the globe, U.S. innovators and entrepreneurs must think more closely about the cost implications of the new technologies they develop. New innovations from global players, such as India, that have long had to innovate within cost constraints are now increasingly on par with many U.S. innovations, but may provide more value," said Dr. Uday N. Kumar, founder and Chief Medical Officer of iRhythm Technologies Inc., and Fellowship Director of Global Biodesign at Stanford University, who is a member of the initiative’s steering committee. "To compete successfully and develop value-driven technologies that importantly benefit the U.S. healthcare system, U.S. payers must also be partners in this effort and support innovations early in the process by appropriately valuing both short- and long-term cost implications, as well as the benefit to the productivity of the U.S. as a whole.”

“As our society seeks to control healthcare costs, ‘Value-driven Engineering’ will help industry leaders design devices that maximize patient care by minimizing the cost of intervention,” Dr. Douglas said. “The improvement in care should be focused on the patient and the quality of life they enjoy.”

As healthcare costs are inextricably linked to the health of the nation's economy, Dr. Douglas said, the initiative's success will valuably enhance U.S. competitiveness on the global stage, create additional jobs and fuel innovation that responds to current fiscal constraints on investments. 

To learn more about the Value-driven Engineering and U.S. Global Competitiveness initiative, visit www.abiakron.org/vde-home.

Development of Accountable Care Community

A key ABIA initiative in the coming year is the development of the Accountable Care Community (ACC). The project will connect ABIA and its founding members with the City of Akron, Summit County and other community health providers to collaborate in the promotion and provision of wellness and improved health outcomes. The initiative aims to lessen the burden of disease, thus reducing healthcare costs and improving lives and the productivity of the community.

The framework improves population health by using a collaborative, multi-institution approach that emphasizes shared responsibility for the health of the community.

The Accountable Care Community: Healthier By Design project is already connecting ABIA and its founding members with the City of Akron, Summit County and other community healthcare providers with citizens in the promotion and provision of wellness and improved healthcare outcomes. The establishment of this national model, in Akron, takes on great significance in light of recent reforms to healthcare at the federal level that aim to reduce factors leading to chronic disease and reach risk groups in convenient, accessible ways.

Areas of chronic disease targeted by the Akron Model to improve health through community and practice-based interventions include

• Diabetes
• Obesity
• Asthma
• Hypertension

ABIA's Accountable Care Community: Healthier By Design project includes the integration of interprofessional teams, with professionals from not only medicine but also pharmacy, public health, nursing, social work, mental health and nutrition. 

To learn more about ACC and upcoming events, visit www.abiakron.org/ccchi-events.

Launch of GOODTEC Efforts

ABIA is creating the Global Organization of Orthopaedic Device and Tissue Engineering Collaboration (GOODTEC), which aims to further Akron’s distinction as a hub for healthcare innovation by leveraging the unmet needs of patients and physicians in the region with innovations in polymers/biomaterials and biomedical products.

Through GOODTEC, ABIA and its partners will develop a biomedical technology innovation and commercialization “machine” that will incorporate a state-of-the-art incubator, located in the new ABIA headquarters, and link ABIA/UARF i6 advisors with promising startups to guide new company leaders with technology development, commercialization, company formation and early-stage funding.

ABIA will provide high-level support to startup companies, and those who lead them. GOODTEC supports startup organizations by providing space, expertise and funding during early-stage development:

• Space: The GOODTEC incubator, set to foster the growth of five to 10 startups at a time, will be housed within the new ABIA headquarters and will include office space, wet and dry labs, core prototyping equipment and other instrumentation, community conference space and back-office support.
• Expertise: For startup companies that grow through the GOODTEC initiative, ABIA/UARF i6 advisors will act as early-stage leaders, providing hands-on support throughout company formation and development. ABIA/UARF i6 advisors will provide the “know-how” and “know-who” necessary for technology commercialization in the Akron region, and technical and business development support including engineering development, biomaterials science and engineering, prototyping and testing, pre-clinical and clinic trial development/management, marketing plan development, commercialization pathway development, regulatory and reimbursement support and intellectual property strategy development.
• Funding: Included in the GOODTEC initiative is an early-stage seed fund specifically for technologies and companies to be nurtured within the GOODTEC incubator. This early-stage funding can be utilized by startups during the “imagining,” “incubating” or “demonstrating” phases of development.

ABIA Offers Basic Life Support and Advanced Cardiac Life Support Courses

As a part of its mission to focus on education of the entire healthcare team, to improve the delivery of care and to increase disaster preparedness within healthcare institutions, ABIA’s Center for Simulation and Integrated Healthcare Education (CSIHE) now offers the American Heart Association's (AHA) Basic Life Support (BLS) and Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) courses in a convenient, self-paced and timesaving format.

All required coursework can be completed in approximately half the time required for a traditional, classroom-based course. By utilizing the American Heart Association's HeartCode products, participants can access the Part 1 cognitive online portion of HeartCode BLS or ACLS from any location where internet access is available (home, work, etc.). After completing the course’s on-line educational components, learners can schedule an appointment at the CSIHE facility in downtown Akron to complete the Part 2 skills test component of the course. The skills component can be completed in as little as 45 minutes.

To learn more about CSIHE’s BLS and ACLS training, visit www.abiakron.org/acls-bls.

 ABIA and UA Leverage National i6 Challenge Win with Women's Entrepreneurship Program

The Women’s Entrepreneurship Program (WEP) kicked-off in January, 2011 as a collaborative program through ABIA and The University of Akron Colleges of Business Administration and Law, offering students the chance to pair their scientific and business strengths for the purpose of innovation and commercialization.  The program was created to increase the number of woman entrepreneurs in the biomedical and alternative energy sectors and to foster the creation of technology projects such as “stretch and stick” tape made of a novel, biocompatible polymer that can conform to implantable devices and simultaneously elute drug to decrease the incidence of post-surgical site infections, and a socket cooling system sensor that would regulate the temperature within prosthetic sockets for amputee patients.

In the inaugural WEP class, 7 teams of researchers and business students explored the feasibility of unique business ideas to help transform medical and scientific research findings into start-up companies that will create local jobs.  The first course concluded on April 29, 2011 with presentations by each of the teams, on their project’s potential for commercialization in the Akron marketplace.

The Women’s Entrepreneurship Program is one of the successful components of the “Innovative Solutions for Invention Xceleration” (ISIX) project, designed to facilitate the commercialization of technology projects in Akron. The project, developed through ABIA and University of Akron Research Foundation, won the National i6 Challenge Award, sponsored by the Economic Development Administration, National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health. It aims to increase innovation and minimize the time from idea to commercialization of new technologies by bringing together world-class scientists, physicians, engineers, researchers and entrepreneurs in the biomedical device/product and polymer science industries of Northeast Ohio.  The Women’s Entrepreneurship Program contributes to the ISIX process, strengthening the innovativeness of Akron.

To learn more about the Women's Entrepreneurship Program, visit www.abiakron.org/wep.