Cleveland Clinic and North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System Form Innovation Alliance

CLEVELAND and MANHASSET, N.Y., Feb. 22, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Cleveland Clinic and the North Shore-LIJ Health System today announced an agreement to create an "Innovation Alliance" to benefit patients through collaborative innovation and commercialization opportunities. Specifically, they will seek to enhance the discovery, development, deployment and commercialization of new technologies originating from North Shore-LIJ's clinical facilities and its Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, headquartered in Manhasset, NY.

North Shore-LIJ is the second institution in the country to join Cleveland Clinic's Innovation Alliance program, the first being MedStar Health – the mid-Atlantic's largest healthcare system.

The primary goal of the collaboration between Cleveland Clinic Innovations (CCI) and North Shore-LIJ is to leverage the capabilities of CCI to help turn the discoveries made at the Feinstein into diagnostic and treatment options that can be used to improve patient care. The collaboration, which will also identify other opportunities for joint projects within the North Shore-LIJ Health System, will be led by CCI Chief Innovations Officer Thomas Graham, M.D., and Executive Director Chris Coburn, and Feinstein Institute President Kevin Tracey, M.D..

"Cleveland Clinic is committed to accelerating the development of technologies that directly benefit patients," said Delos M. "Toby" Cosgrove, M.D., president and CEO of Cleveland Clinic. "We are pleased to have the opportunity to work with North Shore-LIJ on a shared mission to deliver innovative quality care to patients."

Over the past decade, breakthroughs originating at the Feinstein have led to the creation of 11 start-up companies. The Feinstein Institute now has more than 200 active patents that comprise 80 distinct technologies.

"There was a positive creative synergy that we recognized in our meetings with the Feinstein Institute and North Shore-LIJ," said Dr. Graham. "This is an exciting time for healthcare, and this type of collaboration, with a strong health system in a different geographical region, offers us the opportunity to improve and extend patient lives, enhance access and create jobs in both service areas."

Through this collaboration with CCI, Feinstein Institute officials say they hope to pursue commercialization ventures focused on diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, cancer, sepsis, Alzheimer's and schizophrenia.

"Working with a nationally renowned healthcare organization like the Cleveland Clinic provides North Shore-LIJ with a tremendous opportunity to leverage the research strengths of our Feinstein Institute and the capabilities of the entire North Shore-LIJ Health System," said Michael Dowling, president and CEO of North Shore-LIJ, which has 15 hospitals and more than 200 other facilities across the New York metropolitan area. "With Cleveland Clinic Innovations as a partner, we'll be able to achieve our shared goal of expediting the introduction of clinical breakthroughs, improving patient care and creating jobs." 

The Feinstein is organized into 11 Centers of Excellence with nearly 100 laboratories and clinical research programs, in which more than 1,500 faculty and staff conduct translational research, which means taking discoveries made in the lab and applying them in ways that help some of North Shore-LIJ's more than 2,200 full-time physicians improve patient care and outcomes.

Cleveland Clinic Innovations will provide extensive support to the Feinstein to help bring medical technologies from the "bench to the bedside." The two institutions will have a shared focus on developing new and innovative technologies that are commercially viable, while always exploring additional collaborative opportunities that exist between the two organizations.

For over a decade, CCI has earned a reputation as an industry leader in creating a uniquely inclusive environment that has been successful in commercializing medical devices, diagnostic and therapeutic drugs and healthcare-related information technologies.  This model has resulted in 47 spin-off companies and more than $500 million in equity investment.

"The opportunity to collaborate with Cleveland Clinic Innovations is a valuable mechanism to unleash the Feinstein Institute's potential to cure disease," said Dr. Tracey.  "Our scientists are leaders in their fields, and this partnership enables them to implement the discoveries made in our labs to directly benefit patients and improve the practice of medicine."    

About Cleveland Clinic Innovations

Cleveland Clinic Innovations (CCI) is the Cleveland Clinic's corporate venturing arm and was recently ranked among the top five healthcare corporate venturing organizations in the world by Global Corporate Venturing magazine.  (CCI) turns the breakthroughs of Clinic employees into patient-benefiting medical products, creates new business opportunities to deliver the Clinic's unique capabilities to the commercial market.

CCI has enjoyed success for over ten years, creating new companies based on Clinic technology and stimulating the economy.  There have been 47 Cleveland Clinic spin-off companies created, with nearly three quarters of them have receiving equity investment - more than $500 million to date.  CCI has transacted nearly 300 licenses and built a community of collaborators that advances innovation in nearly every aspect of Cleveland Clinic. Through the Innovation Alliance, CCI is helping other healthcare systems accelerate medical innovation by providing commercialization services on site to physicians and staff. CCI is also the host of the annual Medical Innovation Summit, convening 1,000 great thinkers and leaders for a candid exchange on new medical technology, its future, recent breakthroughs and continuing challenges. http://www.clevelandclinic.org/innovations

About North Shore-LIJ Health System

The nation's second-largest, non-profit, secular healthcare system, North Shore-LIJ delivers world-class clinical care throughout the New York metropolitan area, pioneering research at The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research and a visionary approach to medical education, highlighted by the Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine. North Shore-LIJ cares for people at every stage of life at 15 hospitals, long-term care facilities and more than 200 ambulatory care centers throughout the region. North Shore-LIJ's owned hospitals and long-term care facilities house about 5,600 beds, employ more than 10,000 nurses and have affiliations with more than 9,000 physicians. Its workforce of about 43,000 is the largest on Long Island and the ninth-largest in New York City.  For more information, go to www.northshorelij.com.

About The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research

Headquartered in Manhasset, NY, The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research is home to international scientific leaders in Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, psychiatric disorders, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, sepsis, inflammatory bowel disease, human genetics, leukemia, neuroimmunology, and medicinal chemistry. The Feinstein Institute, part of the North Shore-LIJ Health System, ranks in the top 6th percentile of all National Institutes of Health grants awarded to research centers. For more information: www.FeinsteinInstitute.org  

Contacts: Brian Mulligan/Emily Ng
North Shore-LIJ/Feinstein Institute
516-465-2618/516-562-2670
[email protected] / [email protected]

Brian Kolonick
Cleveland Clinic
216-225-5614
[email protected]

SOURCE Cleveland Clinic