A Note on Corporate Open Innovation: Engagement with Startups

This Note summarizes our findings based on an exploratory and initial global research study of best practices for organizations employing open innovation business model strategies. We utilized an expert interview approach to develop a survey that was taken during the Covid-19 pandemic. It was meant to assess open innovation strategies and tactics, particularly focused on partnering with startups and emerging companies. We worked with a cohort of Corporate Accelerator Forum (CAF) members (as experts), prior to a more extensive survey of corporations concerning their engagement with startups. Our experts included key leadership from Techstars, Bayer CoLaborator, and Illumina Accelerator. We plan a broader, more extensive survey of national and international companies as a follow up. Our results highlight and provide commentary on current industry practices and trends during the Covid-19 pandemic, and have applicability to the biopharma, MedTech, and digital medicine/health markets.

An introductory perspective on emerging, transformative technologies in biopharma: promises, challenges and impediments

This article provides a top-level overview of some key challenges and potential solutions associated with the development and commercialization of innovative and transformative solutions to address identified needs in biopharmaceutical, MedTech and Digital Health markets. As the industry seeks to incorporate more diverse technologies, it is simultaneously transforming thru the formation of open innovation partnership models and collaborations amongst the various parties in the ecosystem, including start-ups and emerging organizations. Accordingly, organizational, or business model transformation is required to reduce risk, while providing for capital-efficient development, clinical validation, and commercialization. We also address the need for an ethical and transparent approach to align the interests of all parties in the healthcare ecosystem and to achieve affordable pricing of the resultant solutions.

Recent advances in the technology of anesthesia

The practice of anesthesiology is inextricably dependent upon technology. Anesthetics were first made possible, then increasingly safe, and now more scalable and efficient in part due to advances in monitoring and delivery technology. Herein, we discuss salient advances of the last three years in the technology of anesthesiology. Consumer technology and telemedicine have exploded onto the scene of outpatient medicine, and perioperative management is no exception. Preoperative evaluations have been done via teleconference, and copious consumer-generated health data is available. Regulators have acknowledged the vast potential found in the transfer of consumer technology to medical practice, but issues of privacy, data ownership/security, and validity remain. Inside the operating suite, monitoring has become less invasive, and clinical decision support systems are common. These technologies are susceptible to the “garbage in, garbage out” conundrum plaguing artificial intelligence, but they will improve as network latency decreases. Automation looms large in the future of anesthesiology as closed-loop anesthesia delivery systems are being tested in combination (moving toward a comprehensive system). Moving forward, consumer health companies will search for applications of their technology, and loosely regulated health markets will see earlier adoption of next-generation technology. Innovations coming to anesthesia will need to account for human factors as the anesthesia provider is increasingly considered a component of the patient care apparatus.