Beaumont's Invention Creation Center to stir innovation, create jobs

That's the thinking at Beaumont Hospitals, which is opening the Beaumont Commercialization Center in Royal Oak. The idea is to help manufacturers and inventors bring their ideas for new medical devices and technology to reality. The key to doing this is to have those with the product knowledge work with medical staff to create the best possible tools and services.

Beaumont hopes to nurture existing businesses in the healthcare industry to grow and even create a few new ones, adding jobs to the local economy.

"The center will contribute to the economic health of our state," says Gene Michalski, executive vice president and chief operating officer for Beaumont Hospitals. "With the center's goal to speed medical innovation to the marketplace, the beneficiaries include not only patients and inventors, but also companies that grow as a result of Beaumont serving as an economic development resource."

The commercialization center will offer turnkey processes from invention concept to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for everything from intellectual property creation to prototype development to usability testing to regulatory approval preparation.

This isn't the first time Beaumont Hospitals have done something like this. In 2005 they started the Beaumont Technology Usability Center, which provides work to help improve medical technology and advises on product design. Among the medical innovations developed and patented by inventors at Beaumont are cone beam technology and automatic breathing control technology, both used for cancer treatment.

Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak is ranked first in the United States for inpatient admissions and second for its number of surgeries. Beaumont Hospital, Troy is among the nation's highest volume community hospitals, ranking third for its number of admissions and fourth in surgeries among hospitals of its size.

Source: Beaumont Hospitals
Writer: Jon Zemke