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The Ohio State University and Cleveland Clinic Form Alliance for Accelerated Commercialization C L E VE L AN D C LI N I C INNOVATIONS and The Ohio State University's Technology Commercia l izat ion and Knowledge Transfer Office (TCO) entered into an alliance in July to accelerate and commercialize medical innovations. This collaborative effort, which reportedly creates the largest medical commercial- ization network in Ohio, is focused on improving and extending the lives of patients, and will have a positive impact on the State of Ohio through job creation and economic development. Cleveland Clinic and Ohio State will be sharing and utilizing their comprehen- sive technology and commercialization service infrastructures to develop and deploy new medical innovations that are generated by researchers, physicians, faculty and administrative staff at both institutions. These innovations come in many forms, such as medical devices, patient services, new medical soft- ware systems, consumer products and startup companies. According to Delos M. "Toby" Cosgrove, MD, Cleveland Clinic President and CEO, "Our shared com- mitment to medical innovation will not only benefit patients, it will also improve the economic health of our state." The efforts of this collaboration will span the medical industry spectrum. One initial area of focus will be on neuromodulation, which uses electrical stimulation to alleviate and cure disease, an area where both institutions have a strong and synergistic focus. Software in medicine is also of high importance as new technologies are allowing research- ers to analyze biomedical data from multiple locations and platforms — a capability that was nonexistent in the medical IT realm due to the wide variety of platforms used for data storage. Both Ohio State and Cleveland Clinic Innovations have extensive portfolios that include successes in developing commer- cialization pathways for medical devices, drug discovery and therapeutics, health information technologies, research tools and diagnostics. Cleveland Clinic Innovations, the corporate venturing arm of Cleveland Clinic, has filed more than 1,600 patents, has more than 300 active licenses and has formed 48 spin- off companies that have received more than $600 million in equity investment. Reportedly, nearly 1,000 jobs have been generated as a result of Cleveland Clinic Innovations and its spin-offs, which have had a significant impact on economic growth in Northeast Ohio. Ohio State has seen more than a 130 percent increase in inventions from the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center and the Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute. Since TCO's reorganization in 2011, Ohio State is reportedly on target to have its best year ever in terms of new revenue, licenses, inventions received and students and faculty engaged in new programs. ■ 40 | Cleveland-Akron-Canton MD NEWS ■ MDNEWS.COM ■ SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2012