Mayo Clinic this week invited representatives from five international medical technology companies for a first of its kind program focused on commercializing innovations and intellectual property coined at the clinic.
The Mayo Clinic Global Medical Business Immersion Program this week hosted companies from Brazil, Canada, Israel, the Netherlands and Scotland for a week of collaboration with Mayo physicians and business leaders.
The program is under the direction of Mayo Clinic Ventures, the arm of Mayo charged with technology transfer. Mayo Clinic Ventures commercializes Mayo Clinic technologies for the benefit of patients worldwide, and with the revenue, it supports clinical practice, research and education, according to Mayo materials.
The immersion program was intended to foster new collaborations within Mayo Clinic’s existing international network and to work with international partners with a range of experience and technologies, said Timmeko Love, Mayo Clinic Ventures business development manager.
Love joined Mayo Clinic Ventures in 2014; she was previously a principal at Best Buy Capital where she directed investments in consumer technology startups.
“The idea is that Mayo generates a lot of inventions but we make those inventions available for public benefit so that outside companies might have license to Mayo Clinic intellectual property, and that might set the foundation for new products that these companies might introduce and in some cases even be core technology for establishing new startups,” Love said.
The visiting companies included Cognilab, of Canada, a virtual laboratory for the study of human cognition; MOUNT, a Netherlands company that produces “Digital Decision Aids” to help patients understand treatment options; and Pixeon, a Brazilian provider of IT solutions and information systems.
The other attendees were Snap40, of Scotland, which has a product, “Senda,” that enables monitoring of patients’ health systems in their own homes; and Techsomed, or Israel, that has a product for real time monitoring and control of thermal ablation procedures, called “BioTrace.”
Each of the companies was vetted and chosen for its cultural and mission compatibility with Mayo Clinic, Love said. Each could have future collaborations with Mayo through licensing, co development or joint research.
Another benefit of having the companies visit Mayo Clinic’s Rochester campus, Love said, was a chance for their representatives to see the opportunities that exist in the city including the potential for expansion or relocation to Discovery Square or elsewhere in the city.
Why do business with Mayo Clinic Ventures
Some of the medical advancements most widely used throughout the world have been developed at Mayo Clinic. Nearly every MRI machine contains Mayo Clinic technology. Mayo Clinic holds the patent for the assay of choice to diagnose vitamin D deficiency and monitor treatment results. Mayo Clinic was awarded a Nobel Prize for discoveries that led to the isolation and first use of cortisone.
For 150 years, Mayo Clinic has produced meaningful and measurable changes in providing top-tier, best practices in medicine. We are the largest private, integrated group practice of medicine in the world, with more than 6,200 physicians, scientists, residents, fellows and students in every medical speciality. We improve medical science, solve medical problems and provide whole-person care to patients worldwide. We have all the collective wisdom of Mayo to solve complex problems and advance medical science. We want to share Mayo Clinic resources and technology to benefit patients and medicine.
Collaborate with renowned researchers
To work with Mayo Clinic Ventures is to work with some of the most esteemed medical scientists in the world. The finest minds, focused on a responsibility to make medicine better, collaborate across specialities to solve complex research questions. Such a close integration makes it possible to quickly bring proven diagnostics and therapeutics to patients. Through industry collaborations, Mayo Clinic’s innovative technologies are spread worldwide.
Mayo Clinic Ventures’ mission
We serve Mayo Clinic’s moral responsibility to medicine by finding partners that can bring Mayo’s inventions to the marketplace, where they can be used to improve medicine everywhere. Our mission is straightforward: Commercialize Mayo Clinic technologies for the benefit of patients worldwide while generating revenue to support clinical practice, research and education at Mayo Clinic.
Date: April 30, 2016