Cleveland Clinic has all but perfected the process of investing in health IT. From creating cutting-edge research to commercializing innovation development, the health system is a hub for health IT business.
Gary M. Fingerhut is executive director of Cleveland Clinic Innovations, the organization's commercialization arm. In its history, the team has executed more than 500 licenses, spun off 69 companies and indirectly created 1,100 jobs.
In late October, Cleveland Clinic held its 2014 Medical Innovation Summit, titled "Now, it's Personal," on cancer treatment and personalized medicine. The meeting was the biggest the organization has ever had, exceeding 1,700 attendees from providers and payers to entrepreneurs and investors, all coming together to trade notes on the advances in genomic medicine to personalized cancer treatment.
"When you combine thought leadership on the clinical and investment levels, you turn the corner [at the meeting] and you see deals being done," says Mr. Fingerhut, who also has noted a significant increase in the speed of capitalization and innovation in health IT.
Why is this so?
"It's a hockey-stick of innovation due to the theme of doing more with less," says Mr. Fingerhut. "The value-based approach to care requires providers to refine processes and deliver patient care at a lower cost, so there's been an uptake in clinical decision support and in the genomics space."
This investment has resulted in a significant growth to Cleveland Clinic's health IT portfolio in the last few years. From interactive visual health records to increased cognitive computing capabilities and remote monitoring, the organization's device, therapeutics and diagnostics portfolios have taken off.
Indeed, the chameleon nature of the healthcare environment has created the perfect incubator for health IT innovation, because change means healthcare is learning to reinvent on a regular basis. This streamlines the process for future innovators, bringing together pathways to innovation that work and pruning those that are less successful.
In the commercialization process, collecting innovations also means delivering inventor satisfaction. "We're a service organization to the caregivers of the Cleveland Clinic," says Mr. Fingerhut. "Innovation is a core value here, and we have to manage [caregivers'] inventions effectively. Optimization of that financial return allows us to do additional product development and grow the innovation engine."
And, growth of the innovation engine has never been more important than now.
According to Mr. Fingerhut, organizations of many industries outside of healthcare are now interested in leveraging their assets in healthcare and contributing to healthcare innovation, which is resulting in new research and development markets and opportunities.
"This is a time that the world has never seen with respect to innovation," says Mr. Fingerhut. "I would expect this growth of innovative technologies to down the cost of delivering healthcare and provide for better outcomes and patient satisfaction, and I don’t see it ending for a very long time."
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