Smart censors, 3-D and 4-D printing, and personalized health care: Those are the trends local experts say are shaping Orlando’s dynamic health care scene.
At Orlando Business Journal’ s Decoding Health Care panel discussion on Sept. 25 with a sold-out crowd, four industry experts shared details of these trends, and what’s being done in Central Florida to attract more companies and help existing ones capitalize on the health care industry.
Here’s who was on the panel:
- Jennifer Dunham, partner and principal of Arsenal Venture Partners, a venture capital firm focused on the intersection of government, large corporations and emerging technology
- Scott Faris, founder and CEO of NanoZyne, a nano-therapeutics company
- Dr. Sampath Parthasarathy, associate dean for research at the University of Central Florida College of Medicine and Florida Hospital chair in cardiovascular science
- Rick Wassel, director of IQ Orlando and executive director of the strategy office at Florida Hospital
To help foster these top health care trends and more, Wassel shared details of the recently created IQ Orlando — a four-way partnership between UCF, Tavistock Group, AHG Group LLC and Florida Hospital. Together, these four entities strive to bring more health-related technology companies to the region.
“By aligning the resources of these partners, we can help early-stage companies commercialize their products in the market and help them grow,” Wassel said. “We’re looking for companies across the U.S. in technology clusters and innovation hubs that are looking to grow in the health care sector. We want to make sure these companies have access to capital, and we can help them acquire capital for research.”
IQ Orlando is designed to tackle a challenge that has faced Florida for years: funding. “We’re working on trying to come together in Orlando and across the state to identify the right resources for entrepreneurs,” Faris said. “A capital network needs to be established here so we can keep companies in the state. It’s not just about getting a check, it’s about smart funding.”
For more on the Decoding Health Care event, see OBJ’s Oct. 2 print edition.
Date: September 25, 2015