Innovation, influence and business in America's medical cities.

The cardiac inflammation biomarker developed by Dr. Stanley Hazen and his colleagues at the Cleveland Clinic was a valuable and proven technology, thought Jake Orville, president and chief executive of Cleveland HeartLab.The question was: How to take a test for the biomarker to market?Based on Hazen’s research, Cleveland Clinic spinoff company PrognostiX had commercialized a [...]

The Cleveland Clinic has received a $1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to fund research on treating spinal cord injuries.The research is aimed at developing surgical treatments that would promote nerve regeneration and restore bladder function to patients who’ve suffered serious spinal cord injuries, according to a statement from the Cleveland Clinic.Yu-Shang [...]

Diana Tirpak considers herself a living example of the greatest recycling program on the planet.Two years ago, her life was saved by something most hospitals treat as trash the umbilical cord blood from a newborn.A baby’s cord blood is rich with stem cells, which increasingly are being used to cure [...]

While the national health care reform debate simmered, Lowe’s Companies Inc.struck an alliance with the Cleveland Clinic to better control the home improvement retailer’s rising costs.Now, Lowe’s employees and their families can have their heart surgeries done at the Clinic, the nation’s top-ranked heart hospital and one that President Barack Obama has held up as [...]

Some of the top stories at MedCity News this week: Contract drug development organization Ricerca Biosciences LLC has completed its acquisition of the discovery and preclinical business of MDS Pharma Services, more than doubling its workforce and multiplying its global capabilities. Ricerca in Concord Township, Ohio, paid $35 million, less normal working capital and a [...]

Steve Arless learned the hard way that it’s never too early to start talking to potential commercial partners that could help develop your early stage medical technology company.Arless told an Ohio Venture Association group on Friday that his decision to pass on an early commercial development offer ended up costing his company a lot more [...]

Executives of biopharmaceutical company Athersys Inc. seem more confident than ever that their stem cell therapy MultiStem could eventually be used to profoundly help patients recover from heart attack, stroke or leukemia.In a conference call with securities analysts late Thursday afternoon, the executives also disclosed promising research on drug candidates to treat obesity and attention-related [...]

In tonight’s In Focus, the Cleveland Clinic’s Medical Director of Employee Health Dr. Paul Terpeluk is here to talk about theClinic’s new “Healthy Choice” program.Terpeluk discusses who qualifies, how the program works and where the idea for the “Healthy Choice” program came from.Is thisgoing to be the new trend in health insurance?

BioEnterprise Inc., the bioscienceventure developer in Northeast Ohio, has formalized a partnership with Team NEO to woo new medical imaging, neurostimulation, cardiovascular device and orthopedic companies to the region.Both nonprofits work in Northeast Ohio andsometimes theybump against each otheror duplicateefforts,said Annette Ballou,director of strategic marketing and communications for BioEnterprise. So the two organizationsdeveloped a strategicplan [...]

University Hospitals has received a $1.5 million donation that the health system will use to establish an endowed chair within its heart and vacular institute.Dr. Barry Effron, associate chief of the division of cardiovascular medicine at University Hospitals Case Medical Center, becomes the first holder of the Figgie Family Chair for Clinical Cardiovascular Excellence, which [...]