In an effort to streamline this process Indiana University’s Pervasive Technology Institute (PTI), the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (CTSI), and Cook Medical have worked together to create “www.i2iconnect.org,” a unique online service that matches inventors and technology transfer professionals with companies looking to develop their inventions into commercially viable products.
“Health care research and products have become highly specialized and inventors and technology transfer organizations are struggling to find the right licensing partner,” said Bill Barnett, senior manager of life sciences for the IU Pervasive Technology Institute. “i2iconnect gives them a place where they can find current and accurate information on the innovations companies are looking for.”
i2iconnect makes matches through an easy-to-use, free web interface that accesses a database of medical companies. Users look for potential partners using specific keywords or disease categories. Technology transfer offices find the service helps broaden the search for innovation partners and speeds the technology transfer process.
“i2iconnect addresses a critical and often challenging step in the translational medicine life cycle,” said Indiana CTSI director Anantha Shekhar. “In order for medical and scientific research to have real impact, new technologies must reach the market and the patients.”
With more than 5,500 medical device, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical manufacturers in North America alone, bringing technology from the lab to the bedside can be highly complex. Medical schools and researchers must find a manufacturing partner that suits their research objectives, and manufacturers must match their research interests with projects that are relevant to their strategic clinical focus from the more than 125 medical schools in North America. The i2iconnect.org system will potentially carve months from the search process by helping companies and researchers find the right partner quickly and reducing the amount of time and energy both sides spend corresponding with potential partners who do not have compatible interests.
“The i2iconnect system is going to be a significant time-saver for both manufacturers and university researchers,” said Thomas Cherry, product development manager of Cook Medical’s Critical Care division. “The greatest benefit of such a system and missing piece to the puzzle is that it will effectively link researchers with the appropriate industry personnel contact at a much faster pace than was previously possible. The length of time to advance new innovative technologies to the patients has just been significantly shortened.”
i2iconnect is supported in part by a National Institutes of Health American Recovery and Reinvestment Act award to the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (CTSI) through the National Center for Research Resources. The Indiana CTSI focuses on translational science, a new model of research that works to convert medical discoveries from the laboratory into products and treatments for improving human health.
“Tools such as i2iconnect, illustrate how Recovery Act funds have been leveraged to enhance the ability of researchers to find and develop partnerships with industries that can turn their inventions into drugs and devices that add value to patient care,” said Barbara Alving, M.D., director, National Center for Research Resources, National Institutes of Health.
For more information or to use i2iconnect, visit http://i2iconnect.org/.
About Pervasive Technology Institute at Indiana University
Supported by a $15-million grant from the Lilly Endowment, Inc. Pervasive Technology Institute (PTI) is a leading-edge technology organization dedicated to the development and delivery of innovative information technology to advance research, education, industry and society.
About Cook Medical Founded in 1963, Cook Medical pioneered many of the medical devices now commonly used to perform minimally invasive medical procedures throughout the body. Today, the company integrates medical devices, drugs and biologics to enhance patient safety and improve clinical outcomes. Since its inception, Cook has operated as a family-held private corporation. For more information, visit www.cookmedical.com/. Follow Cook Medical on Twitter at twitter.com/CookMedicalPR.