Innovation + Job News

The Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) announced a new partnership between Ireland-based company i360medical and Cleveland Clinic Innovations during a speech at the City Club of Cleveland last week.
 
The partnership will result in i360medical representing the European wing of the Cleveland Clinic’s Innovation Alliance program -- the corporate venturing arm of the Cleveland Clinic. The program itself has 52 spinoff companies that have raised approximately $620 million in equity financing, according to Executive Director Chris Coburn.
 
i360medical bills itself as a medical device innovation company acting as an international and national hub for new healthcare ideas and medical technologies.
 
Frank Ryan, CEO at Enterprise Ireland -- a government funded organization tasked with developing and growing Irish companies in world markets, says there are two reasons why they wanted to work with the Cleveland Clinic.
 
“First of all, innovation. The clinicians here at the Cleveland Clinic are renowned for competence and expertise,” he says. “Secondly, it means exposing Irish companies to those clinicians and the development of new medical device technologies.”
 
Coburn says the Clinic first linked with Enterprise Ireland in the middle of the last decade. “20 percent of cardiologists in Ireland were trained in Cleveland Clinic,” he says, adding Cleveland’s strong Irish heritage was another building block early on in their relationship. It quickly became clear that Enterprise Ireland was “a perfect fit.”
 
“We view Enterprise Ireland as an absolute leader in terms of public-private entities looking to stimulate growth,” says Coburn. “This is a very sophisticated operation, and I think a role model for other entities, whether state or county or local, in terms of doing it right.”
 
 
Source: Chris Coburn, Frank Ryan, Brian O’Neil
Writer: Joe Baur

Engineer Waseem Roshen is working toward a breakthrough in solar cell technology efficiency.
 
Roshen, founder and director of SS Power Technology, says he has found a way to increase the efficiency of solar-power cells by implementing a circuit board he invented that reduces the power lost in transit between the surface of the solar cell and the battery.
 
“Currently about 20 percent of the sunlight falling on a solar cell is converted into electrical power inside the solar sell,” explains Roshen. “This generated electricity is sufficient to run most electrical devises that need electricity to run; however, only a small fraction of the electric power generated in the solar cell can be extracted out of the solar cell and delivered to a device under almost all conditions of operation of the device.” The rest of the electrical power is lost.
 
Roshen is currently raising money on top of a $50,000 grant from TechColumbus to continue his research. “A portion of these funds are being used to develop prototypes and to test Dr. Roshen’s patent pending innovative circuit design at OSU’s College of Engineering,” says Gary Rawlings, Director of Technology Commercialization at TechColumbus. “The first series of data has shown performance improvements greatly exceeding expectations.”
 
If successful, Roshen says the consumer will see a large drop in the cost per watt of solar energy, as well as a large number of new electrical devices – like mobile electrical devices -- that can be run on solar power. “All of this should lead to less reliance on fossil fuel, such as coal, gas and oil, thus helping clean the environment.”
 
 
Source: Waseem Roshen, Gary Rawlings
Writer: Joe Baur

Lindsay Sims has been a lifelong renter and knows the headaches involved with trying to reach a property management office for leasing information. She also knows that property managers are not using social media effectively to promote their properties.

So, in 2011 Sims founded Renter’s Boom, a resource for property managers to use sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn as leasing portals.
 
“We are a software and service company smashed together,” says Sims. “We offer three apps: refer a friend, a listings app, and a make an appointment to see an apartment app. It makes it easy because that’s where some users spend five to 10 hours of their day.”
 
Sims originally designed a maintenance app where renters could text the property managers. But after going through the Bizdom U program, she refocused her businesses. “I figured out what business was going to work,” she says. “The feedback was property managers wanted to know how to handle social media.”
 
With that feedback, Sims developed Renter’s Boom. “For the past six months we were really running as fast as we can, figuring out the silver bullet that works,” she says. Originally working out the Beta Space at MAGNET, Sims recently moved into new offices at E. 55th and Euclid.
 
Business is good. Sims has a solid client base and hopes to start hiring around the first of the year. “I want to make sure our revenue strategy is okay,” she explains. “But I’ll be looking for people to get our clients serviced -- sales and marketing people.” In the meantime, Sims is looking for a fall intern to help with the daily operations.

 
Source: Lindsay Sims
Writer: Karin Connelly

Dawn Sheanshang, a pharmaceutical sales rep, became sick of medications one day. Despite her insider knowledge, she couldn’t handle the medication regimen of a loved one who’d recently been discharged from the hospital.

Determined to help, Sheanshang searched online for solutions but found no easy answers. Out of her frustration, MedaCheck was born. With the help of startup acceleration Innov8 for Health, and a partnership with Jeffrey Shepard, a self-described “serial entrepreneur with a Ph.D.,” this high-tech health startup – and its eponymous app – were born.

“More and more today, medication regimens are extremely complicated, with many different drugs and people’s changing presciriptions," Shepard says. “People are using mobile devices for a slew of different things. We wanted to target our product around medication adherence – ensuring they’re taking the right pill at the right time, in the right amount and having it set up with a system to ensure they’re actually doing it.” 

Instead of simply placing a reminder on your phone, this app works with the pharmacies, utilizing frequently updated, high-resolution images of the approximately 16,000 medications catalogued by the National Library of Medicine. 

When it’s time to take a medication, a user can click on the pill box to open it, then view their medications using photos and bulleted lists of pertinent details: medication name, dosage, etc. Reminders, including a phone-call reminder if a dose is missed, are also built in.

The challenges of developing such an app include the necessity of HIPAA compliance and generics that constantly change. 

“The challenge is making sure that you’re not making specific claims around medication consumption,” says Shepard. “We don’t give anybody advice or share any information about any specific individual.”

The company is running a pilot of the app in November in collaboration with Cincinnati-based Kroger, with the hopes of making the app public in mid-November. Users will pay a small fee to download the app, which will be available through their pharmacy.

A web-based app as well as native apps for mobile devices is available.
 
By Robin Donovan

After Robert Knighton’s grandmother had a stroke, she could only use the right side of her body. It made keeping clean in the hospital difficult. Knight’s wife Nina, a nurse at the VA Medical Center, noticed the same problem with some of her patients.

“The bed-bound patient population can’t get up to wash their hands,” explains Nina. “If a nurse comes in and she’s contaminated and touches the bedrails, the patients have nothing to wash their hands.”
 
The problem gave Nina an idea. “After working at St. Vincent Charity Hospital and then the VA she noticed it more in conjunction with the spread of hospital-acquired infections,” says Robert. “One day she was driving and it just came to her that patients needed a personal convenient device.” So Robert and Nina formed RKN Corporation in 2010 and started to develop the Bedside Sani-Holder, a bedside hand sanitizer dispenser. “This is a smart dispenser that helps with compliance, reminds patients if they haven’t used it and tracks usage,” says Robert.
 
Working with agencies like MAGNET and NorTech, RKN is working on a prototype of the Bedside Sani-Holder. They expect to hit the market by the second quarter of 2013. The Sani-Holder is part of NorTech’s Speed to Market Accelerator.
 
“We’ve really been able to use Northeast Ohio to launch our product,” says Robert. “Cleveland is known for healthcare and technology. It kind of feels like we’re entering the market at the right time.”
 
Robert and Nina are targeting hospitals and nursing homes with the Bedside Sani-Holder. So far, interest has been high. “We have spoken with quite a few hospitals in Northeast Ohio and have received welcoming feedback and interest,” says Robert. “Humility of Mary’s purchasing department said they would be interested in trialing our product once we are ready to go to market.”
 
When their product hits the market, RKN will be hiring IT staff, customer service, sales reps and operations staff. Two people that have been helping with management tasks will also join RKN working in permanent project management and operations.

 
Sources: Robert and Nina Knighton
Writer: Karin Connelly

Like all with an entrepreneurial spirit, Xavier University junior Anthony Breen is a problem solver.

While he was spending a few days at a local hospital visiting a friend, he met some young children who'd been diagnosed with illnesses. He immediately saw a challenge that he could meet.

"When kids are diagnosed, they are given pamphlets written for adults and by adults. It's not in any way engaging. It's scary," says Breen, a finance and entrepreneurship major, with a minor in accounting.

It was from that experience that Breen developed a web-based app that uses storytelling to teach diabetic children about their disease in an understandable way. It's aimed at ages 2 to 12.

The app, MyHealthyTale, follows a diabetic character through a 15-minute story where the child can answer questions about their chronic disease by following the character through the story. The story pulls from a database of questions, mixing them up. So each time children read the story, they get different questions.

"The can name a bear that goes through the story and customize it," Breen says. "It's a fun way to learn that's not scary."

MyHealthyTale is the inaugural offering of Breen's Minerva Health Learning Systems, one of the winning companies for the new Innov8 for health Startup Accelerator.

MyHealthyTale will soon be available at the iPhone App store, and available on Android in the next three months. In addition to the story book, there's also information and support resources for parents, including the ability to direct email caregivers and other parents with diabetic children.

Breen is working with Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and diabetic educators at Cincinnati Children's and The Christ hospitals. Eventually, he wants to expand the app, with stories that cover a range of illnesses.

"Really, this can be used for any medical condition," he says."Right now we're just entering the market, and we want to move this into asthma and obesity."

By Feoshia H. Davis
Follow Feoshia on Twitter.

EnviroFlight has developed a method of aquaculture that could play a key role in solving world hunger.
 
EnviroFlight is an insect-based feed developer based in Yellow Springs. Glen Courtright founded the company in 2009 with an eye on responding to the world’s shrinking food supply.
 
“We’re going to have to double the world’s food supply in the next 30 years to feed the projected increase in population and account for the increase in standard of living,” Courtright explains. “Aquaculture is a key part of the solution.”
 
Typical sources of protein, such as beef, pork or poultry, are far more taxing on a farmer’s resources than fish. They require more space and more food.
 
At the rate we’re going, our overtaxed ecosystems can’t supply the protein needed to meet the projected food demand. That’s where Courtright believes he can makes a difference. “We believe the cultivation of insects as an aquaculture feedstuff is a key part of a global solution.”
 
Courtright and his team have spent the past three years perfecting their technology and developing aquaculture feed formulations. The solution is converting distiller grains from ethanol production into three products that are high in protein and low in fat. These ingredients are then fed directly to the insect larvae. “Most animals can’t live on an exclusive distillers grain diet, but the insects can,” emphasized Courtright. The result is high quality, healthy feedstuff used to farm fish that will in turn feed hungry families.
 
EnviroFlight is currently testing their feed formulations on tilapia and rainbow trout with an eye on large-scale production in 2013.
 
“Our technology will greatly benefit the world,” Courtright exclaims. “We’re able to create a clean, sustainable source of feed for aquaculture” that will produce safer, better quality fish products right here in Ohio.
 
 
Source: Glen Courtright
Writer: Joe Baur

Offenberger & White (OffWhite) has launched the fifth generation of their content management application, Ed.it2.
 
The Marietta-based company is a marketing consulting firm dating back to 1985. Bill White, CEO and co-founder, says the product was conceived, funded and developed by Marietta College alumni working for OffWhite. “It is a 100 percent Ohio-generated solution to the global problem of cost-effective website management and integration.”
 
Ed.it2 is a digital media dashboard that includes a content management system developed for browser-based website management and editing. White says this latest iteration of the application permits management of digital media and websites from personal devices, such as iPhones, iPads, PCs and other computers with access to a conventional Wi-Fi or cellular connection.
 
“Central to the Ed.it2 is a ‘Simple Edit’ function that provides real-time editing on live pages whenever the user is logged in,” explains White. “If you see a typo, simply click the icon, make the change and save.” The changes are immediate, and mistakes can be undone just as quickly.
 
Looking ahead, OffWhite will be demonstrating live website applications of Ed.it2 at webinars. They’ll be hosting “lunch and learn” sessions, highlighting the products features to clients. “Ed.it2 provides easy access and a secure user interface for setting multiple access privileges, managing databases, quick content editing, content optimization to improve search engine rankings, analytics, social media and more.”


Source: Bill White
Writer: Joe Baur

Purchasing agents for mid-size companies have a very tough job, says Bob Ray, co-founder of Columbus-based ProcureSafe, which provides subscription-based online supplier management.

“Medium-size companies with 20 to 500 employees generally don’t have a formal purchasing department dedicated to making corporate purchases,” he explains. “The person responsible for purchasing may be the business owner himself, an office manager, the IT manager or so forth. He or she is inundated by supplier sales calls and has limited time to manage existing suppliers, let alone research prospective suppliers who may offer better pricing or functionality. This can lead to costly purchasing mistakes or missed opportunities for important savings.”

To address this problem for what Ray says is an underserved market, ProcureSafe  launched a new app in August that collects supplier data, organizes it and provides a rating system based on buyer experiences.

The company tested an Alpha version of the app with 22 users in eight industries, obtaining feedback on what they liked and what they thought would make the service more valuable. The company also conducted more than 100 interviews with additional businesses for their input as well.

“The new app completely automates and manages new information on existing suppliers,” Ray explains. “Buyers direct suppliers to a supplier registration portal where they complete a profile, input product information and pricing and then answer qualifying questions to match preselected qualifying criteria.”

This information is stored and categorized in ProcureSafe’s database. In addition to supplier data, the app offers a rating system based on buyer experience. “When a buyer is ready to make a purchase, he or she simply accesses the database for qualified suppliers, considers the feedback on them and can then send a quote request,” he says.

According to Ray, the new app reflects the best practices of market leaders in procurement, supplier management and group purchasing. “It’s a massive network of supplier information that will enable buyers in medium-size companies to make smarter decisions faster.”

Source:  Bob Ray, ProcureSafe
Writer:   Lynne Meyer

Cyber security is a red-hot topic of worldwide concern with would-be cyber attackers representing a significant problem for virtually every major service we use.

That’s according to Peter Jenney, chief technology officer of Dayton’s SCADA Security Innovation, Inc. (SSI), which develops software protection systems for Industrial Control System (ICS) equipment and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition Systems (SCADA).

The Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) has invented and is patenting software security algorithms to protect computers against cyber attacks. AFIT recently announced that it has partnered with SSI to commercialize the technology, granting an exclusive license to the invention for the ICS market and further rights for the automotive electronics market.

“This represents the first time in recent memory that AFIT has licensed technology for development in commercial markets,” says Rusty Baldwin, research director for AFIT’s Center for Cyberspace Research.

According to Jenney, the technology is aimed at general purpose computers, and SSI is focusing its efforts on specializing it for industrial control system networks that represent our critical infrastructure. The infrastructure includes everything from municipal water supplies, power plants and distribution systems to petroleum refineries, water and waste management facilities.

“Many of these computer control systems were not designed to withstand cyber attacks,” he explains.  “Unlike cyber attacks against banks or other institutions, the cost of these attacks is measured not in loss of credit card numbers and money, but in loss of life, environmental impact and cost of recovery.”

Vulnerable networks offer attack pathways into sensitive equipment that, should it be compromised, could enable an attacker to take over entire processes. The pathways may be used to capture sensitive information, such as research and development, process control or other proprietary secrets that could damage a company’s competitiveness or integrity.

“Our goal is to give cyber warriors the tools they need to make successful attacks against critical systems extremely difficult, if not impossible,” Jenney says.

SSI anticipates being ready to market the new technology in late 2013.

The company was established in late 2011 as a subsidiary of Boston’s Security Innovation, Inc. It received an investment of $200,000 from the Dayton Development Coalition (DDC). DDC says that commercializing technologies developed by or for the Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base is a long-term key to encouraging new business investment that can lead to job creation.

Source:  Peter Jenney, SCADA Security Innovation, Inc.

TiE Ohio will recognize international entrepreneurs at its awards ceremony on Thursday, Sept. 20. Two Cleveland business executives, Jose Feliciano and Wayne Duigan, will be honored.
 
TiE Ohio is a resource for entrepreneurs to network and find mentors for their businesses. This event recognizes immigrant and American-born entrepreneurs who have taken their businesses to an international level.

“Entrepreneurs have the passion, the dream and they are willing to put themselves all in,” says Joe Cole, executive director of TiE Ohio. “We want to reward the entrepreneurs who are going global.”
 
Jose Feliciano, a trial lawyer with BakerHostetler, will receive the Community Catalyst Award. The award recognizes people who have supported immigrant entrepreneurs. “He’s really been in the forefront of advocacy of the immigrant entrepreneur,” adds Cole. “He has a predisposition to being an entrepreneur.”
 
Feliciano is the founder and chair of the Hispanic Roundtable, is former chairman of the Hispanic Leadership Development Program, founder of the Hispanic Community Forum and was a founder of the Ohio Hispanic Bar Association. He also hosts the monthly talk show, El Sol de Cleveland. “He’s really been out in the forefront,” says Cole.
 
Wayne Duigan, director international sales for Horizons, Inc. is nominated for the Global Entrepreneur award. “He has significantly grown Horizons’ global presence,” Cole notes. “They’ve really done a great job in establishing an international presence.”
 
The event will be held at the Ariel International Center at 5:30 p.m. Mark Kvamme, president and CIO of JobsOhio, will be the keynote speaker. 

 
Source: Joe Cole
Writer: Karin Connelly

Steve Deal has one problem with the infusion of technology into today’s healthcare model: it leaves out the patient. “We have the government pouring money into health IT on the providers’ side, but patients don’t have anything,” he says.

Along with co-founders Rene Raphael Vogt-Lowell and David Pingleton, Deal launched IFG Health, which is now in the beginning stages of launching a host of apps aimed at helping patients and families work more efficiently with their physicians and other healthcare providers.

Their first app, the IFG Provider Journal is available in web and mobile versions, and has a Facebook-like interface that allows users to track vital statistics, such as height, weight or blood pressure, record details of care plans during appointments and note progress via text and photos.

In many ways, the app is an electronic version of the notebook many people take to their physician’s office, and may be especially useful for caregivers who help a loved one manage complex conditions. 

Unlike a physical notebook, the app has search and sort functions for ease. Deal says that having information available – even basics that should be in a provider’s electronic medical record – helps appointments flow smoothly when time is limited. Also, not every physician or nurse is comfortable with EMRs, Deal points out.

A video on the company’s website says physicians wait an average of 10 to 15 seconds for the answer to a question before they move on, with or without the necessary information. 

Deal has experienced this firsthand as a caregiver for his father and mother-in-law, but doesn’t fault physicians. Today’s primary care providers, he points out, “go from one life crisis to another every 15 minutes,” facing burnout along the way. 

He hopes that organized patients will be able to partner better with their doctors, and plans to unveil a host of new web and mobile apps to help.

By Robin Donovan

Flywheel, Cincinnati's social enterprise hub, has launched a new series of training sessions designed to develop marketing, planning, research and business skills in the nonprofit sector.

Meetings run this month through November, beginning with a session on Market Research, Wednesday, Sept. 19. The session will help nonprofit's better use market research to test the feasibility of new programs or to improve existing ones. (The session runs from 2 to 4 pm at The Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati. You can register at Eventbrite.)

This training series fits with Flywheel's mission to help non-profits in generating money through social enterprise, or products or services that have social value. 

The organization was formed early this year by the Leadership Council for Human Services Executives, the Executive Service Corps of Cincinnati, the Center for Social Entrepreneurship at Miami University, and Centric Consulting.

Flywheel has scheduled two other workshops. Click on the links to register for the them.

Social Enterprise 201

October 9, 1 - 4 pm

Business Planning Training

(in partnership with The Health Foundation)

November 2, 9 am - 5 pm

By Feoshia H. Davis
Follow Feoshia on Twitter.

The LaunchHouse Accelerator kicked off its inaugural program on September 4 with 10 technology startup companies eager to move to the next level. The program is funded through a $200,000 ONEFund grant and a $50,000 grant from Clarion Direct Investment. Each company will receive a $25,000 investment from LaunchHouse to grow their business.
 
“We’re quite excited,” says LaunchHouse CEO Todd Goldstein. “It’s changing the way investments are made in Northeast Ohio. With a little bit of capital we work with them to go from idea to validation.”
 
Goldstein describes the accelerator program as “customer-centric,” emphasizing the identification and needs of potential customers to grow the business. The 12-week program will provide mentors and instruction to the startup owners, guiding them through set goals.

“We’re hitting the ground running,” says Goldstein. “We’re not starting from scratch. We’re looking at the best innovators and how the company has grown.”
 
More than 60 companies from around the world applied for the accelerator. Twenty were selected to make their pitches to a panel of experts. From there, 10 companies were chosen, nine of which are from Northeast Ohio. The hope is that these 10 businesses will remain in Northeast Ohio once they are better established.

“The goal is to keep these companies in the region,” says Goldstein. “We believe Northeast Ohio is prime for an explosion of entrepreneurs.”

 
Source: Todd Goldstein
Writer: Karin Connelly

The Ohio State University’s Technology Commercialization and Knowledge Transfer Office (TCO) and Cleveland Clinic Innovations recently formed a special alliance with the goal of helping move Ohio into the forefront of medical innovation and enhance job creation in the state.

“Nationally, this is one of the few alliances of this kind between prominent academic medical centers, putting Ohio in a leadership position for the commercialization of medical technology,” according to Brian Cummings, OSU’s vice president of technology commercialization.

Efforts will focus on improving and extending the lives of patients, and innovations will come in many forms, such as medical devices, patient services, new medical software systems, consumer products and startup companies, Cummings explains.
 
“This partnership holds enormous potential for Ohio to reshape the future of medicine,” says Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee in a news release.

The two organizations will be sharing and using their comprehensive technology and commercialization service infrastructures to develop and deploy new medical innovations generated by researchers, physicians, faculty and administrative staff at both institutions.

“Our first step going forward is to assess each other’s assets, available resources, unique programs and intellectual property portfolios and to begin to analyze the overlaps and gaps where we can assist each other,” Cummings says.

Cummings cites neuromodulation as an important innovation for the new partnership to explore. “Neuromodulation is one of the hottest areas of research and breakthrough innovation in current medical practice,” he says. "It has the potential through electrical stimulation to literally turn diseases off and on."

"Dr. Ali Rezai is a leader in this field and currently works at the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center but started his work at the Cleveland Clinic, where he has built up a large portfolio of high-value companies and patents," Cummings adds. "Using the Clinic’s existing intellectual property and the clinical capabilities of Dr. Rezai’s current work at Ohio State should lead to a string of joint innovations and a host of new companies."


Source: Brian Cummings
Writer: Lynne Meyer