Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center Launches Wake Forest Innovations

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C., Dec. 12, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center has created a new operating division to translate its academic and clinical research and discoveries into marketable products and services that will benefit patients. The new enterprise, Wake Forest Innovations, is being led by Chief Innovation Officer Eric Tomlinson, DSc, and Ph.D, who is also President of the Piedmont Triad Research Park.

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Wake Forest Innovations is investing in novel ways of stimulating conception and development of products and services that will generate new revenue streams by establishing and managing new business partnerships. 

The new division provides the institution with several new services:

Product Innovation & Commercialization Services is responsible for supporting the creation of innovative technology and products and commercializing these through licensing to existing and startup companies. It also is focused on forming companies that can locate in the Piedmont Triad Research Park.

The group consists of an innovation team and a commercialization team. The innovation team 'embeds' scientist-entrepreneurs within faculty groupings to provide guidance on product ideas, intellectual property protection, regulatory practices, business case modeling, competitive position and path to market.

The commercialization team licenses technologies and products and incubates startup companies through their capital formation and early operations.

Product Innovation & Commercialization Services currently manages two investment funds:  Spark Grants to enable the development of innovative ideas and a Value Inflection Fund for achieving preclinical proof-of-concept.

Scientific Business Services is a newly-formed business support group that helps to structure, promote and contract our research assets to external partners. Scientific Business Services now manages Preclinical Surgical Services and the Center for Applied Learning.

Among the research assets being currently promoted are several models of disease, preclinical surgical techniques, bioinformatics, medical device testing, nanomedicine, and genetic tests. Wake Forest Baptist anticipates that effecting commercially competitive contracts that lead to success for our clients should also encourage a broader engagement of companies and organizations with Wake Forest and promote the Piedmont Triad Research Park as a place to locate business.

Park Development Services is focused on the growth of the Piedmont Triad Research Park –home for 10 Wake Forest Baptist departments and 30 companies– as a vibrant, knowledge-based community. This group promotes and the research park as a place for excellence in science, technology and business innovation by supporting a socially engaging environment while incubating and attracting new companies.

Wake Forest Innovations includes a business development group responsible for branding, marketing and sales of the Medical Center's scientific services, licensable technologies and products. It also has an operations group responsible for accounting, contract management, administration, database management and census.

Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center (www.wakehealth.edu) is a fully integrated academic medical center located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The institution comprises the medical education and research components of Wake Forest School of Medicine, the integrated clinical structure and consumer brand Wake Forest Baptist Health, which includes North Carolina Baptist Hospital and Brenner Children's Hospital, the commercialization of research discoveries through the Piedmont Triad Research Park, as well as a network of affiliated community-based hospitals, physician practices, outpatient services and other medical facilities. Wake Forest School of Medicine is ranked among the nation's best medical schools and is a leading national research center in fields such as regenerative medicine, cancer, neuroscience, aging, addiction and public health sciences. Wake Forest Baptist's clinical programs have consistently ranked as among the best in the country by U.S.News & World Report for the past 20 years.

SOURCE Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center