Beaumont Hospitals in Royal Oak, MI, has launched the Beaumont Commercialization Center to help manufacturers and inventors bring their ideas for new medical devices and technology to reality. This full-service center is the first of its kind to blend product development knowledge with the experience of physicians and clinical staff at one of the highest-volume hospitals in the nation. 

The Beaumont Commercialization Center will work to turn the latest patented technologies from inventors at Beaumont, other medical institutions and businesses into market-ready medical devices for original equipment manufacturers to acquire or license.

Services offered by the center include a turnkey process from invention concept to FDA approval.  These services include intellectual property creation, design and engineering, prototype development, usability testing, safety and efficacy assessment, and regulatory approval preparation.

"All too often, physicians or other inventors have a brilliant concept for a medical device but lack the resources and time that is needed to make that idea a reality," says Steve Ebben, vice president of planning and marketing for Beaumont Services Company. "When the services of the Commercialization Center are combined with the ideas of inventors, the innovation that results will help shape the future of healthcare -advancing standards of care for patients and providers everywhere." 

"The center will also contribute to the economic health of our state," says Gene Michalski, Beaumont's executive vice president and chief operating officer. "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 new Commercialization Center is an outgrowth of the Beaumont Technology Usability Center (BTUC), which opened in 2005. BTUC provides user-interface design and evaluation to improve medical technology and its use. Along with testing and advising medical device companies on product design, BTUC has worked with the FDA on a national patient safety project to prevent medical tubing misconnections.

High patient volume and the Commercialization Center's product development expertise, combined with the simulation capabilities of the Marcia & Eugene Applebaum Surgical Learning Center, make Beaumont the ideal location to test and develop new medical devices and help bring them to market.  

Medical innovations developed and patented by inventors at Beaumont include cone beam technology for cancer treatment; and automatic breathing control technology, also for cancer treatment.

For more information about the Beaumont Commercialization Center, visit www.beaumontcommercializationcenter.com.