Alberta launches another commercialization centre to boost at health care ICT

Target sector of 130 companies

A new product commercialization centre (PCC) for emerging health care technologies is the latest addition to the new suite of innovation programs being rolled out in Alberta. After six months into a year-long transition period to fold a large collection of largely standalone programs into four corporations under the umbrella of Alberta Innovates, Clinexus is aimed to assisting small firms to validate their technologies and successfully introduce them into the global marketplace.

Funded with $3 million over two years from the ministry of Advanced Education and Technology (AET), Clinexus is one of several PCCs in the province aimed to adding value to existing research strengths in sectors underpinning the Alberta economy (see chart).

"Clinexus focuses on health care technologies and the primary focus is on the application of ICT (information and communications technologies) in the delivery of health care," says Clinexus executive director Rob Beamish. "It's more about business and the technologies of health care companies. We stay away from the clinical, molecular level side of things."

Clinexus grew out of a pilot at the Univ of Calgary headed by Dr Penny Jennett, an expert on e-health, head of the faculty of medicine's health telematics unit and president of the Canadian Society of Telehealth. Although the pilot concluded two years ago, Jennett was involved in the early funding decisions for Clinexus.

two years & re-evaluate

Beamish says it's uncertain whether funding for Clinexus will extend beyond the initial two-year period, adding that he's focused on showing results. He estimates that there are about 130 mostly small firms that represents Clinexus' potential client base.

"It will be re-evaluated in two years but there's no runway past March 31, 2011 … If we prove to have good results, I'm confident there will be a decision to continue beyond that," he says. "My role is to keep partner relations going and develop new partnerships, taking on longer-term projects that require heavy lifting."

An example of a longer-term project is developing a regulatory strategy from a global perspective. That entails helping companies understand the requirements of the US Food and Drug Administration, European Union and Health Canada and position product development accordingly. Clinexus is currently putting together a trade show booth to be unveiled at the Medica 2010 World Forum for Medicine at Dusseldorf in November.

"I'm really quite pleased with the innovation program launched by AET, particularly the voucher program and the provincial SRED (R&D tax credits). It's a focused but broad-based approach and the recent changes and those ongoing are a reflection of the provincial government seeing innovation as a priority. It's all about sector diversification and company growth," says Beamish.

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