In recent weeks, the Austen BioInnovation Institute in Akron (ABIA) announced the first medical device company to emerge from our unique collaboration of leading health-care and educational organizations. Apto Orthopeadics offers hope to thousands of children whose curved spines require frequent and painful surgeries.
It is impressive that Apto offers the promise of an improved quality of life. But Apto means far more for the Akron community. The new company represents ABIA’s growing local and national impact. In 2012, we will:
• Bring researchers from across the country to Akron to rethink medical device innovation;
• Offer further details on our coordination with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to improve public and personal health;
• Move into our new headquarters, further supplementing Akron’s biomedical corridor; and
• Implement our partnership with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to explore the safety and performance of materials used in medical devices.
ABIA was created out of the extraordinary collaboration of Akron Children’s Hospital, Akron General Health System, Northeastern Ohio Medical University, Summa Health System, the University of Akron and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Such collaboration is a key strength of our organization and helped us win a $1 million National i6 Innovation Challenge award from the U.S. Department of Commerce. Without the award and the underlying collaboration, Apto founders Dr. Steve Fening of ABIA and Dr. Todd Ritzman of Akron Children’s Hospital would not have been able to work so closely to develop their prototype to treat scoliosis.
The Apto team put into practice a strategy we call “patient-to-prototype-to-patient-to-product.” This innovation ecosystem accelerates medical device development. First, we examine the needs of patients, and then we develop a device prototype to meet a common need, investigate whether it helps patients and if it does, quickly develop a safe and affordable product that improves health. Look for more innovations that follow this pattern in the coming year.
Even as our entrepreneurial efforts accelerate, our national conference in April will more quickly raise to national prominence the city’s profile as a leader in biomedical device innovation. Hundreds of leaders from industry, academia and the public and private sectors from across the nation will gather in Akron. Building upon a year-long effort, participants will discuss ways to apply a process called Value-driven Engineering (VdE) to the medical device industry.
We already have presented the concepts of VdE to members of Congress and experts across the country. This effort to improve health care, simplify medical devices and reduce costs to the entire system has the ability to transform the industry, accelerate innovation and lead to more effective care. Just as important, it will allow the U.S. biomedical industry to retain its lead in medical device development and create jobs.
In 2012, ABIA also will move forward with its Accountable Care Community project, meant to improve the health of individuals with chronic disease, improve the efficiency of Akron’s health-care community and reduce the impact illness has on area business and productivity. For Summit County, this collaboration of more than 60 organizations will lead to better coordinated care, improved access, reduced cost and a greater quality of life.
This, too, is a project with national scope and implications. ABIA is coordinating with the CDC to develop a community health-care model that other cities will be able to adopt.
In May, we will open our nearly $13 million headquarters at Perkins and North Main streets. The 40,000-square-foot facility will include a state-of-the-art training center that will offer team-based, patient-centered simulation programs. The Center for Simulation and Integrated Healthcare Education will help improve care and professional training across the region. Its BioSkills laboratory will feature a nine-bay, cadaveric surgical skills lab and mock operating room outfitted for video conferencing and recording for medical device evaluation catering to industry, health-care providers and researchers.
Finally, within the next year, we will expand our partnership with the FDA to improve the quality, consistency, predictability and safety of biomaterials in medical devices. Akron experts will help our government agency accelerate the approval of new medical devices.
I must tell you, I am more than a bit proud to be part of an effort that someday may help straighten a child’s spine without the additional burdens of repeat surgery.
But as you can see, Apto Orthopeadics is just a part of the picture and 2012 will be a frenetic, energizing and amazing time at ABIA and in Akron, as we build a region dedicated to biomedical discovery and enterprise.
Douglas is president and chief executive of the Austen BioInnovation Institute in Akron and is the national chairman of the Value-driven Engineering and U.S. Global Competitiveness initiative, a public-private coalition made up of leaders from industry, academia and the public and private sectors working to retain the United States’ lead in medical device development and innovation.
