Thomas Jefferson University is one of the largest medical schools in the U.S., and is affiliated with Jefferson Health which has five hospitals and other services in the greater Philadelphia Area. Independence Blue Cross (IBX) is the leading health insurance company in southeastern Pennsylvania. The two organizations recently announced a collaboration to promote innovation in healthcare. Starting July 1, 2015, the new program will operated with $2 million in funding.
The program is intended to help encourage the development of new products and procedures. An Entrepreneur-in-Residence program will provide support for doctors and researchers to bring their ideas to fruition, through proof-of-concept and prototype stages. The collaboration will also develop education curriculum on innovation and entrepreneurship. The expectation is that this combined effort will result in novel solutions ranging from wearable Health Tech devices for patient monitoring to improved treatment outcomes and reduced hospital readmissions.
The collaboration could serve to cement Philadelphia’s reputation as a center for medical and healthcare innovation, and may serve to attract new businesses to the area. This could build on the synergistic relationships that already exist in the region, and could lead to advances that impact physicians and patients across the country and around the world.
