healthcare : Innovation + Job News

Quantitative Radiology Solutions is the latest company to hang its shingle at the University City Science Center's Port Business Incubator. 

By taking up residency at the Port, Quantitative gains access to an extensive network of resources to grow its business. Quantitative is also a participant in the Phase I Ventures Program, which allows early-stage companies to test their business feasibility in a low-risk environment. Quantitative received $213,000 in direct financing from P1V and additional grants from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.

The startup is developing a technology that promises to disrupt radiation therapy and treatment for cancer patients. We asked Joe Camaratta, Quantitative's president and CEO to tell us more.

What is your big idea? 

Quantitative Radiology Solutions helps physicians make optimal treatment decisions through analysis of medical images. Our initial product, Automatic Anatomy Recognition (AAR), supports recognition, delineation and quantification of anatomical objects and diseased tissues in multiple body regions using CT, PET/CT and MR images. 

Unlike existing automatic segmentation approaches that work on only three to five objects in a specific body region and require an unacceptable number of manual adjustments, AAR recognizes and delineates all anatomical structures in a given body region accurately and efficiently.  

What is your origin tale? 

The company was [founded by] Drs. Jayaram Udupa (computer science) and Drew Torigian (radiology) at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Udupa was developing a novel image segmentation algorithm that used hierarchical modeling and machine learning techniques for object identification and delineation. Dr. Torigian, who focuses on quantification of disorders using computer-assisted techniques, applied the algorithm in body fat quantification and obstructive sleep apnea to demonstrate its usefulness in radiology.  

Dr. Udupa presented the new approach during a seminar to physicians and physicists from the Department of Radiation Oncology, and was approached by Drs. Peter Bloch (medical physics) and Charles Simone (radiation oncology) about its application in radiotherapy planning. Drs. Udupa and Torigian contacted the Penn Center for Innovation and created Quantitative Radiology Solutions as part of the UPstart program to commercialize technology. I joined as president and CEO to lead these efforts. 

What is ahead for Quantitative Radiology Solutions?

Our initial application area is radiation therapy planning. We believe there are applications of our technology in medical oncology to help assess tumor response to therapeutic interventions. There are also potential applications in surgical planning and 3-D printing using medical images. 

Why does the marketplace need your company? 

The global market for medical imaging is forecasted to reach $50 billion by 2020, and advanced modalities such as CT, MR and molecular imaging will account for 50 percent of that market. The rise in the number of imaging exams and number of images per exams necessitates new approaches to augment a physician’s ability to effectively evaluate exam results in a timely manner. A quantitative approach to medical imaging interpretation can improve early disease diagnosis, standardize assessment of disease response to treatment, and enable the discovery of new disease biomarkers. 

What is your elevator speech? 

We combine 75 years of expertise in clinical imaging, computational theory and algorithm development, and product development and commercialization [experience] from industry-leading organizations in medical imaging. When applied to the field of radiation therapy planning, our approach enables a robust standalone software solution that significantly improves the speed and accuracy of imaging contouring to support initial treatment planning and adaptive radiotherapy.

WRITER IN RESIDENCE is a partnership between the University City Science Center and Flying Kite Media that embeds a reporter on-site at 3711 Market Street. The resulting coverage will provide an inside look at the most intriguing companies, discoveries and technological innovations coming out of this essential Philadelphia institution.
 

Flying Kite has been searching for an #OnTheGround home in Kingsessing, and we’re happy to announce that we've landed at the nonprofit African Cultural Alliance of North America (ACANA) near 55th Street and Chester Avenue.

Founded in 1999 by a group of African immigrants, ACANA worked to support African and Caribbean artists and musicians in their efforts to integrate into the U.S., while preserving their community and cultural values.

Over the last 15 years, that mission has expanded as the organization's target population of immigrants, refugees and asylum-seekers grew, particularly in ACANA’s Southwest Philadelphia neighborhood. The nonprofit began offering a wide range of social services, including ESL (English as a second language) and literacy classes, youth and after-school programs, a food bank, healthcare-related services, and more.

ACANA Wellness Coalition Coordinator Marjorie Anderson says people often don’t realize the breadth of ACANA’s programs or the fact that they’re available to everyone.

"[ACANA] is open to serving the entire Southwest Philadelphia community, and African and Caribbean people no matter where they were born," explains Anderson. "I think that’s something folks don’t know. It’s a resource that’s for the entire community."

For those who want to get to know ACANA better, the organization's youth activities arm is hosting a day-long youth arts showcase on July 9 out of its Chester Avenue space. The event will feature food, art and talks from the kids about what they learned in the programs. And on Sunday, August 7 from 2 - 8 p.m., the ACANA African Festival will take over Penn’s Landing.

Anderson is excited about partnering with On the Ground because of the opportunity to expand ACANA’s relevance to the entire neighborhood.

"I think a lot of organizations are familiar with ACANA [and executive director Voffee Jabateh]," she continues, but she hopes the residency will help "organizations as well as individuals in the community know that there’s a social service resource for the entire community."

Come say hello during our On the Ground hours at ACANA: 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays through August.

Writer: Alaina Mabaso
Source: Marjorie Anderson, African Cultural Alliance of North America

Follow all our work #OnTheGroundPhilly via twitter (@flyingkitemedia) and Instagram (@flyingkite_ontheground).

On the Ground is made possible by the Knight Foundation, an organization that supports transformational ideas, promotes quality journalism, advances media innovation, engages communities and fosters the arts. The foundation believes that democracy thrives when people and communities are informed and engaged. For more, visit knightfoundation.org.

The One Health Company is sending clinical trials to the dogs. And cats. And horses.

The startup, a participant in the University City Science Center Digital Health Accelerator, offers a new model of contract research by conducting pre-clinical trials on already ill patients: aka peoples' pets.

The science behind the idea is strong, says founder and CEO Benjamin Lewis. Disease induced in lab animals is often a poor proxy for natural human disease. Currently, 92 percent of animal cancer trials fail in people.

But pets, many of them genetically similar to humans -- and who typically share our environment -- are ideal proxies for 350 natural human diseases. Lhasa Apsos and male cats develop bladder stones. Poodles are frequently afflicted by cataracts. Golden Retrievers get Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Horses suffer from osteoarthritis.

The approach, says Lewis, is also far more humane that inducing disease in lab animals.

"We have so many sick animals," he says. "Why create more so we can kill them and study them?"

One Health operates out of 350 specialty animal hospitals across the United States. Founded only this year, it already has 450,000 animals in its database and expects to have millions by the end of the year.

The company is currently conducting two trials. Details are proprietary, but their testing is mostly in cancer and endocrine diseases. One Health will test only for efficacy of pharmaceuticals, biologics, injectables, large molecules, medical devices and diagnostics. Testing for toxicology or safety is far too risky for client-owned pets.

Animals enrolled in One Health clinical trials remain with their owners and stay at home for care, returning to the hospital for evaluation by veterinary specialists, rather than being shipped to a lab or a longterm veterinary clinic. At the conclusion of the study, the hope is that the animal is cured or its symptoms ameliorated.

"I’m not asking anyone to do anything I haven’t done with my own pet," adds Lewis. One of his three rescue dogs -- Lulo, a Doberman -- participated in an osteosarcoma trial three years ago. Lulo lost a leg, but is going strong three years later. The prognosis is usually just three months.
 
WRITER IN RESIDENCE is a partnership between the University City Science Center and Flying Kite Media that embeds a reporter on-site at 3711 Market Street. The resulting coverage will provide an inside look at the most intriguing companies, discoveries and technological innovations coming out of this essential Philadelphia institution.
 

We may be used to using automated kiosks to pay for groceries, take out cash, or even check our blood pressure, but what about normalizing this kind of service for mental health screenings, too? The HealthSpark Foundation, with partners Screening for Mental Health and the Thomas Scattergood Behavioral Health Foundation, hopes to increase access to mental health services while reducing the stigma many people feel when they try to address mood disorders.

This month, the organization is debuting five MindKare kiosks in Montgomery County. This comes after two city pilots, one at a North Philadelphia Shop-Rite and another on the Drexel University campus.

According to the partners, the kiosks are "freestanding stations that offer a quick way for individuals to check on their mental and behavioral health by providing online self-assessments." The whole process can take as little as three minutes, explains HealthSpark President and CEO Russell Johnson, who likens the experience of using the touch-screen stations to visiting the ATM.

Evidence-based questions (developed through Screening for Mental Health) that gauge subjects’ feelings of sadness, loneliness, anxiety, or suicidal thoughts result in geographically customized recommendations for follow-up. This includes a list of accessible mental healthcare providers, or encouragement to bring the results of the assessment to a primary care doctor. If a user reveals suicidal thoughts, the kiosk can immediately provide a hotline number for help. Some kiosks enable users to print their results; others offer the option for them to be e-mailed to the user.

As a condition of installing the kiosks, one staffer from the hosting organization who works within view of the kiosk must receive training in mental health first aid. When needed, he or she can be a calming and well-informed presence for a person suffering from severe anxiety or suicidal thoughts, until help arrives.

The program evolved from a Scattergood design challenge a few years ago -- Drexel public health students won with a concept for a mental health-screening kiosk.

"Their interest…was to reduce the stigma associated with behavioral health conditions and create access," explains Johnson.

Dollars from the design challenge win led to the development of the kiosks with help from Screening for Mental Health. After the initial success of the pilot in Philadelphia, HealthSpark came on board, along with the Montgomery County Department of Behavioral Health, to try suburban placements.

According to Johnson, these locations were determined by factors such as geographic diversity and high pedestrian volume. You can find them at the Ambler YMCA, Manna on Main Street in Lansdale, Montgomery County Community College in Blue Bell, Einstein Physicians Collegeville and the Norristown Regional Health Center.

And more kiosks may be coming. Johnson says that Screening for Mental Health, a national organization, is already getting inquiries about installing the kiosks across the country.

Writer: Alaina Mabaso
Source: Russell Johnson, HealthSpark Foundation

The African Family Health Organization (AFaHO), a member of the latest cohort of 40 Barra Foundation Awards winners, got its start in 2005 when founder Tiguida Kaba, a Senegal native, lost a friend -- she bled to death in her own apartment because she was uninsured and undocumented, and afraid to go to a hospital.

It was an extremely traumatic incident for Kaba.

"She felt the need to create something [so] that people would know that no matter your circumstance, you can get care, you can get help," explains AFaHO Executive Director Oni Richards-Waritay.

Richards-Waritay, who came to the U.S. from Liberia, has been on the nonprofit’s staff for about five years after starting as a volunteer. AFaHO’s multi-faceted mission of connecting African and Caribbean immigrants to a range of important healthcare services means a lot to her.

"Being an immigrant myself and knowing the experiences that people went through, I was called to help her in any way possible," she recalls.

Through partnerships with local community health centers that accept any patient who is a resident of Philadelphia, AFaHO case managers and community health advocates facilitate services -- everything from language interpretation at the doctor, to nutrition and wellness counseling, to medical care for children and pregnant women.

AFaHO incorporated in 2005, but didn’t gather the funding or traction to be fully operational until 2009. Originally, the organization operated out of offices at Broad and Spruce, but to better serve their clients, they decided to relocate to West Philadelphia (4415 Chestnut Street).

"I have a soft spot for children," says Richards-Waritay of the work that speaks to her the most. When it comes to persistent health issues, it can be hard for adults to make changes, but with children, "you’re able to mold them to think differently, to act differently, particularly about their health, and I see them as agents of change in their own homes."

AFaHO’s work with children can be particularly important in the emotional health realm.

"[We] help them navigate trying to maintain their African culture but also assimilate into American culture," she explains. "What [does] that mean as they’re trying to straddle these two different worlds and the impact that has on family dynamics?"

She’s thrilled about the opportunities the Barra dollars -- $25,000 per year for two years, with no stipulations about programming -- will offer AFaHO.

"I don’t even know how to explain the importance of this grant, because most of the funding that we get is tied directly to program work," she explains.

The Barra Awards offer general operating support, a rare boon in the nonprofit world. It could help pay for staff’s administrative time, cover a much-needed audit, support additional staff training, or enable an outside evaluation to identify best practices and areas where services could be improved.

"General operating money is really hard to come by," adds Richards-Waritay. Instead of zeroing in on a single program, the grant will let AFaHO grow as an organization. "On so many different levels, in terms of building our capacity, this grant is critical."

Writer: Alaina Mabaso
Source: Oni Richards-Waritay, the African Family Health Organization
 

For cancer patients, their doctors and loved ones, there is no question more pressing than whether the disease will return -- and whether chemotherapy is necessary. BioDetego, a "virtual resident" at the University City Science Center, is aiming squarely at those wrenching uncertainties with a novel testing platform that aims to predict which cancer patients will experience a recurrence and benefit from additional treatment.
 
Based on research by CEO David Zuzga and his mentor Dr. Giovanni Mario Pitari at Thomas Jefferson University, BioDetego was founded in 2012. The company raised seed funds in 2014 and, over the past year, has established a research collaboration with the Mayo Clinic and completed a pilot clinical study in colon cancer.
 
"Following surgery to remove a tumor, the biggest questions for patients and their doctors are, 'Will the cancer come back"?’ and 'Is chemotherapy necessary?'" says Zuzga. "The answers likely determine who receives chemotherapy and who does not, but unfortunately, these are among the hardest questions to answer with the current standard of care."
 
To address this need, BioDetego has identified biomarkers in tumors that are closely associated with how aggressive cancers are. As Zuzga explains, these biomarkers describe the function of a protein called vasodilator-stimulated phosphoprotein or VASP. VASP has a very specific and unique biologic function in tumors. It converts signals that the tumor receives from its environment into physical force, allowing the tumor cell to move throughout the body and ultimately cause metastases.
 
BioDetego's testing platform VASPfore determines whether the VASP mechanism in tumors is functional.

"It’s a bit like seeing whether a transmission is in gear or in neutral," explains Zuzga. "A tumor with the VASP mechanism in gear is highly invasive and these patients are much more likely to experience a relapse and benefit from chemotherapy. Conversely, if the VASP mechanism is in neutral or non-functional, a relapse is very unlikely and these patients may avoid harmful unnecessary chemotherapy."
 
The company's initial focus is on colorectal cancer -- the VASPfore colorectal cancer test could be available to patients in as little as three years after completion of two clinical validation studies. The potential market is large, with 80,000 patients diagnosed each year in the U.S. with stage II or early stage III disease. That number grows to 200,000 with European countries and Australia, where BioDetego has filed patent applications.
 
BioDetego is also investigating VASPfore’s applicability to other forms of cancer including breast, prostate, kidney and bladder.

"Ultimately, we believe there is an opportunity for the VASPfore platform to broadly disrupt the paradigm of cancer prognosis and chemotherapy treatment decision making," enthuses Zuzga.
 
The startup joined the Science Center as a virtual resident in 2014, affording it a physical address and access to the Center’s community and resources. As BioDetego grows, the company hopes to set up operations in the Port Business Incubator. 

WRITER IN RESIDENCE is a partnership between the University City Science Center and Flying Kite Media that embeds a reporter on-site at 3711 Market Street. The resulting coverage will provide an inside look at the most intriguing companies, discoveries and technological innovations coming out of this essential Philadelphia institution.
 

A new way to gather DNA for testing. A better tool for training healthcare workers. Improved physical therapy. An innovative approach to stem cell therapy. These technologies are all under development at regional universities and have been funded by the latest round of the University City Science Center’s QED Proof-of-Concept Program. 

Launched in 2009, the program provides a boost to novel university-born technologies with market potential, bridging the gap between academic research and commercialization. To date, 28 funded QED projects have attracted over $15 million in follow-on funding and led to seven licensed technologies.

QED goes to the heart of the Center's mission as a nonprofit organization that supports early-stage innovation. In its latest funding round -- the eighth -- QED awarded $600,000 to support researchers at the University of Delaware, Penn State University and Rutgers. The awards are half funded by the Science Center and half by the researchers’ institutions.

The four awardees were selected from a pool of 62 applicants and 12 universities in the Greater Philadelphia region.

Amy Cowperthwait of the University of Delaware is revolutionizing healthcare training by addressing the shortcomings of mannequin simulation. A qualified nurse, Cowperthwait has teamed up with lead engineer Amy Bucha to develop a tool for teaching healthcare workers airway management in emergency situations, improving patient safety and providing feedback from the patient’s perspective.

Dr. Judith Deutsch, professor of rehabilitation and movement science at the Rutgers University School of Health Related Professions, led a team of physical therapists and engineers to create a customized low-cost rehabilitation technology that selectively tracks movement and heart rate. The technology will aid in balance, mobility, coordination and fitness training for older adults as well as persons with neurologic and musculoskeletal conditions such as a stroke.

Dr. Melik Demirel of Penn State is using proteins to coat the surfaces of biomedical swabs, improving DNA capture. These swabs will allow gene analysis from even tiny amounts of blood or other biological samples; the DNA swab industry is the primary market for this product.

Dr. KiBum Lee, an associate professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Rutgers, is developing an innovative platform for programming human patient-derived stem cells for use in stem-cell therapies. His methods would help people with incurable and debilitating diseases and disorders. Lee's strategy is unlike conventional approaches because it doesn’t rely on the use of viruses to modify the cells' genes.

"The QED program excels at finding innovative, commercially relevant solutions for pressing problems in healthcare and life sciences," notes Science Center President and CEO Stephen S. Tang. "Our latest round looked for innovative approaches to collaboration as it emphasized partnerships between two groups that don’t typically work together: medical professionals and engineers. Putting together these groups’ different skill sets and perspectives -- as exemplified by Amy Cowperthwait’s and Judith Deutsch’s projects -- creates another path to improving patient care. You can expect to see more of these special emphasis areas in the future."

WRITER IN RESIDENCE is a partnership between the University City Science Center and Flying Kite Media that embeds a reporter on-site at 3711 Market Street. The resulting coverage will provide an inside look at the most intriguing companies, discoveries and technological innovations coming out of this essential Philadelphia institution.
 

2001's No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) -- with its federally mandated education standards -- has been replaced by 2015's Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). On February 24, the Friends Center's Exchange PHL hosted Maura McInerney, a senior attorney at the Education Law Center – PA, for the latest installment of its Breakfast Series to discuss the shifts ESSA will bring to U.S. schools (with most changes taking effect by December of this year).

While McInerney was frank about many portions of the law that maintain nebulous standards in terms of education access, goals, and enforcement, the new rules mean a goodbye to mandates for the controversial Common Core teaching style.

Teachers "had no idea how to implement the Common Core," she explained. Now states are required to adopt "challenging" academic standards -- which could mean a continuance of Common Core or a new standard (Pennsylvania opted to maintain Common Core).

So how does ESSA impact Pennsylvania and Philadelphia schools? Some of its provisions build on the original intent of NCLB with policies to maintain and increase access to quality education for at-risk children. This is important for our state because Pennsylvania has the largest disparity in the country between its wealthy school districts and its under-funded school districts, and children are hurting.

One notable change from NCLB -- particularly relevant to a state with wide funding gaps -- is a new requirement disaggregating data about students' performance. Evaluations will no longer group all children together, but allow special consideration for students who face extra challenges, such as kids who are homeless or living in poverty, kids in foster care, kids with disabilities, or kids learning English as a second language.

ESSA also works to eliminate punitive measures for teachers whose students fail to meet federal standards. According to McInerney, this was resulting in counselors and teachers advising kids to miss tests when they were at risk of failing them.

ESSA also hopes to better support kids who now wind up in Alternative Education for Disruptive Youth programs (AEDY). A disproportionate number of students in AEDY programs have disabilities (McInerney helped open a legal investigation into the problem). And ironically, one issue that often lands kids in AEDY programs is truancy (how can children be labeled "disruptive" if they’re not even present, she wondered). ESSA aims to implement conditions to reduce bullying and harassment and "reduce the overuse of discipline practices that remove students from the classroom." Currently kids in AEDY programs must change schools to enter their new classrooms, and, as a punitive measure, lose access to art and music classes, maintaining only "core subjects." This does little to reduce disruptive behavior or truancy.

Another provision of ESSA that could impact Philadelphia schools in particular relates to grant programs for school districts. Districts that receive over $30,000 must spend "20 percent on at least one activity that helps students be safe and healthy."

What could that mean for Philly? The restoration of school nurses. Due to budget cuts, local schools have lost 100 nurses since 2011. In some cases, a single nurse now covers as many as five schools. ESSA could help change that.

Writer: Alaina Mabaso
Source: Maura McInerney, Education Law Center – PA 
 

In January, the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau (PHLCVB) welcomed its new president and CEO Julie Coker Graham with an announcement ceremony featuring Mayor Jim Kenney and leaders of the National Medical Association (NMA). America’s oldest and largest organization representing African American healthcare professionals, NMA will hold its annual conference in Philadelphia in July 2017. (Flying Kite heard from Graham a few weeks ago when she spoke at Philly’s Women at the Wheel forum.)

According to Graham, the conference will bring 3500 attendees to the city, with an estimated $5 million economic impact. And it’s extra special because current NMA national president is Philly’s own Dr. Edith P. Mitchell, a medical oncologist and associate director of Jefferson University Health System’s Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center.

Dr. Mitchell is pleased to represent a partnership between Jefferson, the NMA and the City of Philadelphia. When the NMA was formed in 1895, "doctors like me were denied membership in other organizations," she explained at the ceremony. Mitchell appreciates the opportunities at Philly’s many medical and educational institutions and asked, "How we can all work together to fight disparities and head toward healthcare equity for all?"

NMA Executive Director Martin Hamlette introduced Dr. Mitchell with the same themes. He pointed to the NMA's many corporate and political partnerships that tackle the issues both African-American physicians and their patients face, with a special focus on chronic conditions, aging and wellness, and fair access to healthcare.

"We get lobbied by a lot of cities," said Hamlette of deciding to bring the 2017 conference to the Pennsylvania Convention Center. (The last NMA conference held here was in 2003.) Philly was chosen not only because it’s a vibrant, "progressive" city where it’s good to conduct business, but also because it’s "a city that embraces diversity."

"Philadelphia is going to lead toward healthcare equity for all of us," added Dr. Mitchell.

According to PHLCVB, the organization’s convention bookings over the next several years will bring close to two million visitors to the city and generate an estimated $4 billion in regional economic impact.

Writer: Alaina Mabaso
Sources: PHLCVB and NMA speakers
 

Six early-stage healthcare companies comprise the 2016 class at the University City Science Center’s Digital Health Accelerator (DHA). These startups are developing technologies as diverse as enrolling sick pets in clinical trials to providing treatment for chronic wounds without a doctor’s visit.
 
Each startup in the just-announced sophomore cohort will receive up to $50,000 in funding, professional mentorship, and networking opportunities with key healthcare stakeholders including insurers, pharmaceutical companies, hospitals and research institutions. They’ll also receive a 12-month membership at the Innovation Center @3401 -- a partnership between the Science Center and Drexel University in collaboration with Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania and Safeguard Scientifics. 
 
The 2016 DHA companies are:

Grand Round Table
The company's product emails primary care providers a daily summary of their scheduled patient follow-ups so they can better manage high-risk patients, keeping them out of the hospital.

Graphwear Technologies
This startup has developed the first graphene patch to measure dehydration, glucose and lactic acid levels, all from your sweat.

InvisAlert Solutions
The company uses a wearable device to help care providers monitor patients in institutional settings, improving compliance.

Oncora Medical
This enterprise has a tool for planning personalized cancer radiotherapy, reducing the incidence of toxic radiation side effects in patients and improving cancer center efficiency.

One Health Company
This startup helps to enroll ill pets in trials of cutting-edge therapies, improving their wellness and encouraging the development of new therapies for human medicine.

Tissue Analytics
This company transforms the smartphone into a platform for evaluating and measuring things like chronic wounds, burns and skin conditions. 
 
The 2016 class was selected from a pool of 69 applicants via a multi-stage process that emphasized the inclusion of women and minority entrepreneurs. The DHA employs a selection panel of industry and investor professionals -- including a number from outside the region -- to review applications and make recommendations.
 
As it turned out, all of the selected companies have some connection to the University of Pennsylvania or Drexel. Four of them -- Grand Round Table, GraphWear Technologies, Oncora Medical and Tissue Analytics -- are graduates of DreamIt, also located at the Innovation Center. Of the six companies in the second DHA class, three are women or minority-owned.
 
The Science Center launched the DHA in 2014; seven companies from the inaugural class have since gone from prototype to commercialization, creating 68 new jobs, generating over $1 million in revenue and raising almost $9 million in follow-on investment.
 
Funding from the U.S. Small Business Administration Growth Accelerator Fund enabled the second class of the DHA to continue to focus on minority and women-led businesses. The DHA also received support from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Department of Community and Economic Development. 

WRITER IN RESIDENCE is a partnership between the University City Science Center and Flying Kite Media that embeds a reporter on-site at 3711 Market Street. The resulting coverage will provide an inside look at the most intriguing companies, discoveries and technological innovations coming out of this essential Philadelphia institution.
 

It goes without saying that the University City Science Center is home to many innovative and promising healthcare startups. But as Brenda Gavin, a founding partner of Quaker Partners Management, a Philadelphia-based healthcare investment firm, reminds entrepreneurs, it takes more than a good idea to win funding in a competitive investment climate.

Gavin answered questions last month at Quorum’s "Coffee & Capital" event and offered this concrete advice. 

"Both established companies and startup companies should do their homework and know their customer," she said. "That is, they should know as much as possible about the fund they are pitching: When was the fund established? What types of companies are in their current portfolio? What is the previous experience of the partners? How much capital do they have under management? What is their preferred company stage for investment? Don’t waste time pitching a fund when your research indicates they are unlikely to invest.

"All entrepreneurs should remember that most venture funds are limited partnerships with a 10-year life," she added. "This means that a fund must assemble its portfolio, grow value in the companies and get to a profitable exit in 10 years. Most funds invest in companies during the first five years of their life, and harvest in the second five years. So, if a company is a very early-stage discovery company, it is unlikely a fund that is over five years old will invest -- it is unlikely the fund will get to the profitable exit in five years. Entrepreneurs should definitely explore investment from corporate venture funds. They are typically not limited partnerships, so do not have the 10-year limitation."

Since its own founding in 2002, Quaker has invested in dozens of innovative, high-impact healthcare companies at all stages of development and in subsectors including pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, healthcare services, and medical technologies such as devices, tools and human diagnostics. Quaker manages over $700 million in committed capital, and is currently investing its second fund.

Quaker typically invests between $5 million and $25 million in each company, with a focus on the East Coast. Its portfolio includes Science Center alum BioRexis, which was acquired by Pfizer in 2007 only five years after its establishment.

From her vantage point at Quaker’s Cira Centre headquarters, Gavin believes that Philadelphia’s venture capital climate still has room to grow. 

"There is an abundance of scientific expertise and pharmaceutical development talent in this region," she enthuses. "Unfortunately, there is a shortage of entrepreneurial leadership talent and local venture capital for later stage investment. On the plus side, there is substantial early stage investment from Ben Franklin, BioAdvance and the Science Center. These groups are unique to this area -- in addition to their capital, they bring contacts and mentoring. So while our climate is not as robust as that in Boston, the raw materials are here, and I am optimistic that we will see more companies growing here."

WRITER IN RESIDENCE is a partnership between the University City Science Center and Flying Kite Media that embeds a reporter on-site at 3711 Market Street. The resulting coverage will provide an inside look at the most intriguing companies, discoveries and technological innovations coming out of this essential Philadelphia institution.
 

On December 2, wake up with more than just coffee at the latest installment of the Exchange PHL Breakfast Series. At Wednesday's event, regional leaders in innovative social good will tackle "the Path from Startup To High Impact." 

"I think there is something that’s profoundly shifting among nonprofits and their openness to look at these possible changes in how they do business," explains Nadya K. Shmavonian, director of the newly formed Nonprofit Repositioning Fund, who will be speaking at the breakfast.

Hosted by nonprofit-centric co-working space The Exchange, located in Center City’s Friends Center, the event will shift the conversation from entrepreneurship to operations, and discuss how great programs become part of the fabric of the city, touching on sustainable revenue models, evaluation and adaptation.

"We just launched on October 7, so it’s a very new effort," Shmavonian says of the Fund. "We have been pleasantly surprised at how much interest there’s been."

The seven founding members include North Penn Community Health Foundation, Samuel S. Fels Fund, Scattergood Foundation, the Barra Foundation, the Philadelphia Foundation, United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey, William Penn Foundation and Arizona’s Lodestar Foundation.

The Fund targets nonprofits in transition in the greater Philadelphia area, including Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Philadelphia and Montgomery counties. Hosted and administered by the Philanthropy Network of Greater Philadelphia, seed awards and grants will support nonprofits as they explore and formalize new collaborations, joint ventures and consolidations.

In rare instances, the Fund will also help with dissolution planning for individual organizations outside of a merger or acquisition. That, along with the work of "repositioning" nonprofits, can lead to questions about the Fund’s goals.

"How do foundations work with nonprofits in a way that is not threatening?" asks Shmavonian. "Because obviously there’s a power imbalance there. This isn’t about thinning the herd. It really is about finding ways to allow a nonprofit to…deliver on their mission in a sustainable high-performance way."

That can include tweaks like merging back office realms or making an informal partnership an integral piece of an organizations’ structure, allowing the pooling of resources and best practices.

"There’s a whole array of arrangements that people are looking at that stop far short of a formal merger or acquisition," she adds.

Shmavonian is looking forward to the December 2 conversation, which will also feature Lauren Fine of the Youth Sentencing and Re-entry Project. She thinks the next several years will bring very interesting deals for regional nonprofits, and that the Fund will grow a portfolio of creative models for participating organizations.

"It’s a fast-changing environment out there," she argues. "I’m as much about shifting the culture and dynamics around this as I am the actual individual deals that we’re going to engage in." 

The latest Exchange PHL Breakfast Series is happening Wednesday, December 2 from 8:30 - 10 a.m. at 1501 Cherry Street. Attendance is free; click here to register.

Writer: Alaina Mabaso
Source: Nadya K. Shmavonian, the Nonprofit Repositioning Fund 
 

For patients who suffer heart attacks, the resulting damage to the organ can eventually lead to heart failure. Now a University of Pennsylvania lab is investigating the use of injectable biomaterials that show promise as a new frontier in cardiac repair.
 
Speaking at the University City Science Center’s Quorum, Dr. Jason Burdick, a Penn bioengineering professor, described how "hydrogels" have delivered promising results that "might be the difference between going on to heart failure or not." (Bioengineering encompasses concepts from biology and engineering; many areas of the field focus on biomedical applications.) 
 
The Burdick Polymeric Biomaterials Lab at Penn was established 10 years ago and immediately began work on hydrogels. The study of cardiac repair began around seven years ago. The aim is to create substances that go directly into the heart tissue to preserve the heart wall thickness and the overall shape of the heart, frequently damaged by heart attack or "myocardial infarction."
 
"Injectability is an interesting engineering problem," explains Burdick. The challenge is to get the gelatinous gloop to flow through syringes and catheters, solidify and stay stable in the heart tissue.
 
Burdick and his team are making progress using a class of hydrogels based on the molecule hyaluronic acid, already widely used in cosmetic and musculoskeletal procedures. A few small clinical studies are already underway.
 
"The next step is really defining the right formulation that we are interested in pursuing, so that we can finalize pre-clinical large animal trials," he says. "This involves selection of the appropriate method for delivery of the hydrogels to the heart. Hopefully we will move towards a Phase I clinical trial in just a few years."
 
Burdick is careful to credit clinical collaborators at Penn and other schools, notably Robert Gorman, a Penn professor of cardiovascular surgery. The two have founded a startup called Myostratum that is focused on the translation of hydrogel therapies.
 
"I believe this is an exciting area that has a lot of potential to develop new therapies for patients that have myocardial infarction," adds Burdick. "Many people are affected by heart disease and the development of therapies that can improve clinical outcomes is very important."
 
Source: Dr. Jason Burdick, Department of Bioengineering, University of Pennsylvania
Writer: Elise Vider

WRITER IN RESIDENCE is a partnership between the University City Science Center and Flying Kite Media that embeds a reporter on-site at 3711 Market Street. The resulting coverage will provide an inside look at the most intriguing companies, discoveries and technological innovations coming out of this essential Philadelphia institution.
 

Instead of flipping through year-old magazines next time you’re waiting in a doctor’s exam room, imagine using that time (an average of 22 minutes) to enter important medical information on an iPad. Imagine how that could make the average nine-minute doctor/patient encounter more productive for both parties. Real-time information could improve your care, speed your insurance claim and free up your provider to focus more on screening and treatment.
 
Noble.MD, a healthcare IT startup located at the University City Science Center’s Innovation Center @3401, has developed a technology platform that does all that. Their goal is to improve outcomes for patients and create efficiencies for medical providers.
 
We asked Meg Steinmetz, chief program officer at Noble, five key questions about this growing company.
 
What is your big idea?

The average U.S. primary care physician (PCP) has a patient panel of 3,500 patients. With all the requirements and recommendations of the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid and Medicare, it would take the average PCP 21.7 hours per day to provide all recommended risk screening and care. As a result, 50 percent of health risks are never identified and coded, including chronic conditions. 
 
Our team designed a product called Theo to gather information from patients about their health risks on an iPad while they're in the doctor’s exam room. Theo then offers useful information about their health in an interactive manner that is simple and easy to understand. Theo turns the exam-room waiting time into fun, productive time for the patient and provides valuable information to the doctor that is otherwise often missed.
 
What is your origin story?

Our CEO Todd Johnson and his wife Bindi Shah-Johnson -- both trained physicians -- experienced a health crisis with their daughter in the first days of her life. While sitting in an exam room, these two doctors and new parents experienced firsthand how lack of knowledge and communication lead to fear and confusion, which often leads to inaction or poor choices.

Experiencing what average patients go through every day in our incredibly complex health system inspired them to change that for people everywhere.
 
What is your timeline?

Theo is now three years old and in version 2.0. Theo is being used by over 150 physicians in nine states and has interacted with over 50,000 patients in the past year. We are measuring improvement in patient outcomes as a direct result of using Theo. Our next step? Partnering with a major health plan.
 
Why does the marketplace need your company?

With healthcare coverage now available to all Americans, healthcare providers and health plans need a faster, more efficient way to identify patient health risks, manage those risks and get patients engaged in their own care. Theo helps our clients to understand the health risks of their patients in real time and manage them immediately. Our clients range from individual clinicians to accountable care organizations, academic hospitals and health systems.
 
What is your elevator speech?

Doctors and nurses today simply do not have the time to spend with every patient to screen for every health risk, yet under the guidelines of the Affordable Care Act and the Accountable Care Movement, they need to do just that. Theo makes it easy for providers and health plans to learn more about their patients’ health risks and lifestyles, and for patients to learn more about how they can manage their health and better their lives.
 
Source: Meg Steinmetz, Noble.MD
Writer: Elise Vider

WRITER IN RESIDENCE is a partnership between the University City Science Center and Flying Kite Media that embeds a reporter on-site at 3711 Market Street. The resulting coverage will provide an inside look at the most intriguing companies, discoveries and technological innovations coming out of this essential Philadelphia institution.