Youngstown’s role not only in the economic revitalization of Northeast Ohio but also in the establishment of the “Cleveburgh” Corridor continues to grow.  From Jim Cossler:

We are extremely pleased to announce that Humility of Mary Health Partners (HMHP) has agreed to serve as the Beta site for erisRx, a .NET suite of charge capture tools developed by YBI portfolio company Eris Medical Technologies. HMHP is a region of Catholic Healthcare Partners, the largest health system in Ohio and the seventh largest not-for-profit health system in the United States.

The software provides healthcare revenue management teams, clinical staff, and hospital administration with an automated tool to review patient charges both prospectively and retrospectively, prioritize and trend charge capture opportunities, and more effectively manage the hospital patient charge capture process.

To learn more about this exciting new technology that allows hospitals and practices to pin point missing revenue opportunities, visit Eris Medical Technologies at www.erismed.com

Jim

Jim Cossler
Chief Evangelist
Youngstown Business Incubator
330.884.6262
www.ybi.org

From BioEnterprise:

Open Prairie Ventures plans to open an Ohio office in 2008 with Cleveland as the likely destination, according to company’s founder and managing director.  The firm is currently raising a $125 million fund with plans to invest in medical devices, plant and animal sciences, and information and wireless technologies.  Click here to read more.

From BioEnterprise:

Join bioscience investors and entrepreneurs at the 2008 Global Healthcare Investing Conference, April 29-May 1, 2008 at the Cleveland Clinic’s InterContinental Hotel.  

• Participating venture firms include Burrill & Company, Viscogliosi Brothers, Highland Capital, Vivo Ventures, Siemens Venture Capital, SR One (GlaxoSmithKline), Arcapita, Radius Ventures, Pappas Ventures, Aisling Capital, Teleflex Medical and more.
   
• Presenting companies originate from Australia, Brazil, China, Denmark, England, Ireland, Israel, Japan, and Switzerland.  All companies have completed at least one round of professional funding.
   
• Panel discussions include tapping global capital, developing US companies overseas, opportunities in emerging geographies, and other topics of interest.  Executive workshops focus on reimbursement, regulatory development, and clinical studies. 

Group hotel rates expire on Friday, April 11, 2008.   To ensure your reservation at the discounted rate, contact the InterContinental at 216.707.4100 or 877.707.8999 and reference the Global Healthcare Investing Conference.  For more information on the conference, please visit the conference website: www.globalhealthcareinvesting.com.  

From the Columbus Dispatch via Crain’s Cleveland Business:

As the Ohio economy continues to shed jobs overall, employment in the state’s high-tech sector grew in 2006, for the second consecutive year, according to a new report.

Ohio added 2,800 tech jobs that year, an increase over the previous year’s 1,200, based on statistics from AeA, a national nonprofit tech-industry organization.

2007 numbers are expected to be even higher, based on venture-capital investments that tripled to more than $170 million compared with the year before, said Ed Longanecker, executive director of the AeA Midwest Council.

 Get the rest of the story here.

From BioEnterprise:

Please join us for the 2nd Annual Global Healthcare Investing Conference in Cleveland, April 29 - May 1, 2008.  Over 70 health care venture capital firms and investors attended the 2007 conference and attendance is expected to increase in 2008.

2008 Panel Discussion Topics Include:

• Developing US Companies Overseas
• Tapping Global Capital
• Opportunities in Emerging Geographies
• Global Distribution Strategies
• Is it the right time to be in Asia?
• Bringing Companies into the US

2008 Company Presentations Include:

• Non-US based emerging growth companies that have raised at least one round of professional funding.
• Technologies spanning medical device, diagnostics, delivery, drug discovery, biotechnology, healthcare information technology and services.  

Click to see the full agenda. For more information or to register please click here.

From BioEnterprise:

From BioEnterprise:

Ohio has 625 companies registered with the FDA for the production and distribution of medical devices, ranking the state second in the Midwest behind Illinois and ahead of states such as Georgia and North Carolina.  The ranking is a result of traditional manufacturing companies leveraging their skills in precision components and electronics into the profitable and fast-growing biomedical sector.   Click here to read more.

You get more companies that eventually will be ready for VC funding.  From Jim Cossler:

Our ever growing managed cluster of B2B software application companies in Downtown Youngstown grew a bit more with the approval Visual Impact Imaging and Eris Medical Technologies as new tenants.Visual Impact Imaging www.visualimpactimaging.com provides high quality design software and other technical tools to the landscaping industry throughout North America.  Eris Medical Technologies www.erismed.com has developed software that is focused on identifying, benchmarking, correcting and tracking outpatient hospital and clinic missing revenue and charge capture opportunities.  Both firms will be moving into the Youngstown Business Incubator (YBI) in about one month when YBI’s new Taft Technology Center and renovated Semple Building open.  Nine additional software companies are expected to follow within the next twelve months.

Yup. A three building campus loaded with world class software companies globally doing business from Downtown Youngstown.

Yes we can!

Jim Cossler
Chief Evangelist
Youngstown Business Incubator
330.884.6262
www.ybi.org
www.myspace.com/ytownbusinessincubator

As reported in Crain’s:

 A Florida medical imaging company has committed to move to Northeast Ohio to take advantage of government financial incentives and the region’s health care resources.

ViewRay Inc. of Gainesville, Fla., plans to move to the area as soon as it finds a location, said CEO William Wells. He said the company is particularly interested in Solon.

The company holds an exclusive license to University of Florida technology that uses magnetic resonance imaging to guide radiation therapy used in treating cancer.

Click here to read the full story.

Of course, the media coverage focuses on Google more than on the Clinic, but the story is a direct outcome of the early recognition in this region that electronic medical records are coming and worthy of our attention as an economic development opportunity.  From CNNMoney:

“Google Inc. will begin storing the medical records of a few thousand people as it tests a long-awaited health service that’s likely to raise more concerns about the volume of sensitive information entrusted to the Internet search leader.

“The pilot project to be announced Thursday will involve 1,500 to 10,000 patients at the Cleveland Clinic who volunteered to an electronic transfer of their personal health records so they can be retrieved through Google’s new service, which won’t be open to the general public.

“Each health profile, including information about prescriptions, allergies and medical histories, will be protected by a password that’s also required to use other Google services such as e-mail and personalized search tools.”

Click here for the rest of the story.