At Baptist Health Innovations, we see “innovation” as more than a word or buzzword; we see it as a process for improving business, an action to improve lives, and a product that improves health.
I joined Baptist Health Innovations as assistant vice president in 2020 because of this highly specialized way of innovating as well as the team doing the innovating. Baptist Health South Florida physician and serial inventor Barry Katzen, M.D., founded Baptist Health Innovations (initially called Innovation Institute Miami) in 2017 to “engineer the future of health care.” That sounds bold, and it is. We believe boldness is important. In 2019, Baptist Health leadership recruited Mark Coticchia, an innovator with a 40-year track record of developing innovation ecosystems, to lead Baptist Health Innovations. He has brought expert capabilities, a network of economic development, innovation professionals and access to capital.
At Baptist Health Innovations, we provide physicians and staff with resources so they can turn their ideas into innovative products, therapies and services. Take the example of Dr. Anne Ouellette, chief of hand surgery and vice chair of research at Baptist Health Orthopedic Institute, and Dr. Ron Tolchin, medical director of the Spine Center at Miami Neuroscience Institute, who have worked with us for over a year. We collaborated with a company called Rehab Boost to develop a new company, Gait Boost ― Baptist Health Innovations’ first startup. As co-founders, Ouellette and Tolchin will provide the clinical expertise for the Gait Boost platform, which detects movement abnormalities and thus may provide early indication of severe sickness and medical conditions.
I think the two seasoned doctors appreciate the services we have offered. Ouellette said of her work with us, “This has been an outstanding experience in all ways, from tuning up an idea to execution of the idea at the legal and business levels. Actually, I now tell prospective faculty that, in my mind, a main reason they should join Baptist Health is the innovation capability we have.”
It is Coticchia who brought to Baptist Health Innovations the structure that enabled the launch of that company — the process of discovery and collaboration, the capability to take action and create companies, and the knowledge of how to commercialize a product. Coticchia puts the activities of medical innovation into four categories, which we call our pillars:
- Technology management. Baptist Health employees come to us to disclose their idea, understand market size and need, determine usage applications and protect intellectual property. We have reviewed 172 inventions since 2019, including one from renowned neurosurgeon Dr. Michael McDermott. He came to us for help with his idea for a novel surf helmet, which he had envisioned after treating surfers who died from brain injuries. Today, we are well into the process of commercialization.
- Corporate development. Many companies across the U.S. aspire to work with Baptist Health. We develop collaborations to match research needs with our researchers and clinicians. We forged four collaborations in 2021, including an updated agreement with Philips. I’m excited for Philips and Baptist Health to deepen their terrific collaboration and co-develop technologies that improve patient experiences.
- Applied research (R&D) and education. Our support for research and development includes numerous sessions where we share, explain and discuss the Baptist Health intellectual property (IP) policy. We also conduct seminars and meetings in the community to inform people about our activities and inspire them to become health care innovators. In 2021, we received a sponsorship from the Knight Foundation to host a fellowship. In this forward-thinking program, we will teach at least 25 fellows each year how to develop health care products, services and interventions.
- Global licensing. We provide turnkey, best-in-class protocols, procedures and expertise that global health system operators seek to operate effectively in their locales. We also bring cutting-edge technologies into the U.S. through a co-development program. One great example is our collaboration with Triventures, a fund based in Silicon Valley and Israel. We invest in their fund and provide a testing ground and expertise for the technologies in which they invest.
I am especially proud of our creation of an amazing IP agreement whereby Baptist Health creators receive half of the net proceeds for IP. We designed this agreement to be among the most generous in the nation because we knew it would go far in advancing a culture of innovation. For this and many more reasons, my colleagues and I feel our work is energizing thousands of people at Baptist Health. Many of the 24,000 employees know they can come to us for support for ― beyond the buzzword “innovation” ― the processes, actions and products that comprise innovation.
To learn more about Baptist Health Innovations, visit Innovation.BaptistHealth.net. Connect with Baptist Health across our social channels to continue the conversation. We can be found on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Baptist Health South Florida is the largest healthcare organization in the region, with 12 hospitals, more than 24,000 employees, more than 4,000 physicians and more than 100 outpatient centers, urgent care facilities and physician practices spanning across Miami-Dade, Monroe, Broward and Palm Beach counties.
Nila Bhakuni is assistant vice president for Innovation at Baptist Health South Florida. She has spent her career in technology transfer and services at a variety of universities, including Dartmouth College, Rice University, Harvard University and Carnegie Mellon. She also worked for a decade at Alcoa's Technical Center.