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

Summa Health System this morning announced plans to expand three of its hospital emergency departments and build two new full-service, stand-alone emergency rooms in the region.The new free-standing, 24-hour emergency departments will be built in Green, where the health system already has a Summa Health Center outpatient facility; and in Medina County, where the Summa [...]

Summa Akron City Hospital is expanding its emergency department to handle an increasing number of ill and injured patients.The Akron City Planning Commission is reviewing site plans on Friday for a proposed two-story, 84,000-square-foot addition to the north of the existing emergency room.The project will increase the ER size from 43 beds to 75, Summa [...]

US Endoscopy, the endoscopy device design and manufacturing company in Mentor, has released the Entrada colonic overtube, which offers more control during colonoscopy in patients with tortuous sigmoid looping.

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 [...]

The Austen BioInnovation Institute in Akron has made its first round of research and development grants: $680 million to eight projects ranging from a contact lens embedded with a sensor that measures blood glucose levels to a polymer platform for drug-eluting prosthetic devices.

Cleveland Clinic and Case Western Reserve University dental researcher Ge Jin has found a protein switch that turns on the spread of cancer — the process that often leads to fatal breast, ovarian, pancreatic and colon-rectal cancers.

A merger feasibility study committee unanimously approved a report that recommends merging the Akron Health Department and the Summit County Health District, according to the Akron Beacon Journal.

Thomas J. Strauss has been the driving force behind Akron’s Summa Health System for a decade. As president and chief executive, Strauss has led Summa to expand and become a major player in the regional health-care market.

Ohio and its neighboring states need a massive venture capital fund that pumps money into businesses, says a white paper, Turning up the Heat: How Venture Capital Can Help Fuel the Economic Transformation of the Great Lakes Region, released today by the Brookings Institution.

Rising demand for charity care and levels of bad patient debt are problems for most hospitals as the nation struggles to pull itself out of the worst economic recession in a generation. However, hospitals that were on sound financial footing — and those that tightened their belts — prior to the recession now are rebounding and have even begun hiring again.