PHILADELPHIA, January 25, 2016 – The CEO Council for Growth (“CEO Council”) announced that its Health Care Innovation Collaborative (“Collaborative”) has received 115 applications for its first open call for idea submissions to accelerate innovation that improves patient care and outcomes for chronic diseases at www.GreaterThanHealthCare.com. Companies and individuals that completed the application process have the potential to work with the Collaborative’s members on products, systems, technologies or other means. The Collaborative was born of the CEO Council’s Health Care Innovation Task Force, co-chaired by John Fry, president of Drexel University and Daniel J. Hilferty, president & CEO of Independence Blue Cross.

“The number of applicants and interest generated by the Collaborative has surpassed all expectations,” said Claire Greenwood, Vice President of Leadership Councils, Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce and the CEO Council for Growth. “We hope to make Philadelphia a global leader in health care innovation, and the success of this open call moves us another step closer to that goal. This work wouldn’t be possible without the Collaborative members’ commitment to the region and working together to move the region forward.”

Applications show a mix of local and out-of-region interest. Of those who applied to the Collaborative, 74% were from the Greater Philadelphia Region. Applications were also received from 10 states across the U.S. as well as from Canada and Australia. Of the companies that applied from outside the region, 72% expressed interest in relocating to, or opening an office in Philadelphia.  Looking further at the application data, also of interest is: 67% of applicant companies identified themselves as a start-up; for applicants who responded to the question, 32% identified their company as minority-owned; and 45 applicant companies have raised capital in the past year. About one-third of the applications can be described as “telehealth” or mobile health communication solutions, while the next largest category was care management.

“The response we received reflects a diverse and robust pool of applications,” said Keith Marmer, Program Director for the Collaborative. “We feel the number of applicants that indicated interest in relocating to Philadelphia is another strong step towards establishing this region as a global hub for health care innovation.”

This open call was the first of its kind for the Collaborative, which announced the open call on November 11, 2015 and closed it on January 15, 2016. Priority will be given to those applicants that represent opportunities to reduce costs tied to health care, potentially benefit patients or health care consumers, and have a positive impact on one or more socioeconomically disadvantaged population. The applicant notification period begins mid-March.

The Collaborative’s Members are Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Christiana Care Health System, Comcast, Drexel University, Independence Blue Cross, Safeguard Scientifics, Inc., Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health, and University of Pennsylvania Health System.

The Collaborative, first announced in May, represents a new and unprecedented national model for collaboration among health care providers, academic research institutions and the investor community. The founding member organizations have positioned the region for strong continued growth and development in health care innovation.  Working together, these organizations are leveraging the unique assets of the Greater Philadelphia region to accelerate and lead the development of innovation in health care technology and delivery. The Collaborative chose to first focus on chronic diseases because they cause seven out of ten deaths every year in this country, and treatment of these diseases account for 86% of America’s health care costs.

The CEO Council and the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce understand that leading the growth of health care innovation in Greater Philadelphia is not the responsibility of a single company or individual or even nine organizations. Instead, novel solutions for health care technology and delivery are driven by collaboration and through the experience, expertise and interaction with many key leaders from across the life sciences, technology, investment and health care communities. So they have begun convening leaders in this sector through the newly formed Greater Philadelphia Health Care Action Team – a unique, cross-functional group who shares the vision that Greater Philadelphia can transform itself into the global leader in health care innovation.

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About CEO Council for Growth

The CEO Council for Growth is a devoted group of business, higher education, and civic leaders who commit their time and efforts to enhancing economic growth and prosperity in the 11-county region across northern Delaware, southern New Jersey and southeastern Pennsylvania. The CEO Council is an initiative of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce influencing regional and national policy through advocacy.  The CEO Council supports key regional partners in collaborations that will leverage these health care assets and will bring recognition to the region as the global leader in health care innovation.

About Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania

Ben Franklin is the most active early stage capital provider for southeastern Pennsylvania’s technology sectors. Ben Franklin combines best practices of venture capital with a public-spirited purpose: leading the region’s technology community to new heights, creating jobs and changing lives for the better. Ben Franklin is an initiative of the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development and is funded by the Ben Franklin Technology Development Authority.

Visit www.partnerswithapurpose.org for more information.

About The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia was founded in 1855 as the nation’s first pediatric hospital. Through its long-standing commitment to providing exceptional patient care, training new generations of pediatric healthcare professionals and pioneering major research initiatives, Children’s Hospital has fostered many discoveries that have benefited children worldwide. Its pediatric research program is among the largest in the country. In addition, its unique family-centered care and public service programs have brought the 535-bed hospital recognition as a leading advocate for children and adolescents. For more information, visit www.chop.edu.

About Christiana Care Health System

Christiana Care Health System is one of the country’s largest health care systems, ranking as the 22nd leading hospital in the nation and 12th on the East Coast in terms of admissions. The health system includes The Medical Group of Christiana Care, a network of primary care physicians, medical and surgical specialists as well as home health care, preventive medicine, rehabilitation services and patient/family advisors for core health care services. A not-for-profit teaching hospital affiliated with Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University, Christiana Care is recognized as a regional center for excellence in cardiology, cancer and women’s health services. Christiana Care has an extensive range of outpatient services, and through Christiana Care Quality Partners, Christiana Care works closely with its medical staff to achieve better health, better access to care and lower cost. Christiana Care is home to Delaware’s only Level I trauma center, the highest capability center and the only one of its kind between Philadelphia and Baltimore. Christiana Care features a Level III neonatal intensive care unit, the only delivering hospital in Delaware that offers this highest level of care to the most critically ill newborns. Christiana Care includes two hospitals with 1,100 patient beds.

For more information about Christiana Care, visit www.christianacare.org/whoweare.

About Comcast Corporation

Comcast Corporation is a global media and technology company with two primary businesses, Comcast Cable and NBCUniversal. Comcast Cable is one of the nation’s largest video, high-speed Internet and phone providers to residential customers under the XFINITY brand and also provides these services to businesses. NBCUniversal operates news, entertainment and sports cable networks, the NBC and Telemundo broadcast networks, television production operations, television station groups, Universal Pictures and Universal Parks and Resorts.

About Drexel University

Founded in 1891 in Philadelphia, Drexel is a top-ranked, comprehensive university recognized for its focus on experiential learning through cooperative education, its commitment to cutting-edge academic technology and its growing enterprise of use-inspired research. With more than 26,000 students, Drexel is one of the nation’s largest private universities. Drexel is a leader in creating technological solutions to societal problems of the 21st century. Drexel is committed to translational research and is poised to respond to novel opportunities for research, scholarship and technological development. Drexel is one of Philadelphia’s top 10 private employers, and a major engine for economic development in the region. For nearly a decade, Drexel has been ranked in the category of Best National Universities in “America’s Best Colleges” by U.S News & World Report.

The Drexel University College of Medicine has established some of the most highly innovative and rigorous academic programs available today, incorporating the University’s expertise in engineering and technology into traditional medical training. The College of Medicine is home to one of the nation’s leading centers for spinal cord research; one of the foremost centers for malaria study; and a highly regarded HIV/AIDS program with extensive NIH-funded research in prevention and therapeutic interventions. Drexel University College of Medicine has been designated a Vanguard National Center of Excellence in Women’s Health by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, and is highly respected in numerous other specialties including cardiology and the neurosciences. Visit www.drexel.edu/medicine for more information.

About Independence Blue Cross

Independence Blue Cross is the leading health insurance organization in southeastern Pennsylvania. With our affiliates, we serve nearly 10 million people in 24 states and the District of Columbia, including 2.5 million in the region. For nearly 80 years, we have been enhancing the health and wellness of the people and communities we serve by delivering innovative and competitively priced health care products and services; pioneering new ways to reward doctors, hospitals, and other health care professionals for coordinated, quality care; and supporting programs and events that promote wellness. To learn more visit www.ibx.com. Connect with us on Facebook at ibx.com/facebook and on Twitter at @ibx. Independence Blue Cross is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.

About Jefferson — Health is all we do.

Our newly formed organization, Jefferson, encompasses Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health, representing our academic and clinical entities.  Together, the people of Jefferson, 19,000 strong, provide the highest-quality, compassionate clinical care for patients, educate the health professionals of tomorrow, and discover new treatments and therapies that will define the future of health care.

Jefferson Health comprises five hospitals, 13 outpatient and urgent care centers, as well as physician practices and everywhere we deliver care throughout the city and suburbs across Philadelphia, Montgomery and Bucks Counties in Pa., and Camden County in New Jersey.  Together, these facilities serve more than 78,000 inpatients, 238,000 emergency patients and 1.7 million outpatient visits annually.  Thomas Jefferson University Hospital is the largest freestanding academic medical center in Philadelphia.  Abington Hospital is the largest community teaching hospital in Montgomery or Bucks counties.  Other hospitals include Jefferson Hospital for Neuroscience in Center City Philadelphia; Methodist Hospital in South Philadelphia; and Abington-Lansdale Hospital in Hatfield Township.

Thomas Jefferson University enrolls more than 3,900 future physicians, scientists, nurses and healthcare professionals in the Sidney Kimmel Medical College (SKMC), Jefferson Colleges of Biomedical Sciences, Health Professions, Nursing, Pharmacy, Population Health and is home of the National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center.

For more information and a complete listing of Jefferson services and locations, visit www.jefferson.edu.

About Penn Medicine

Penn Medicine is one of the world’s leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and excellence in patient care. Penn Medicine consists of the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (founded in 1765 as the nation’s first medical school) and the University of Pennsylvania Health System, which together form a $5.3 billion enterprise. The Perelman School of Medicine has been ranked among the top five medical schools in the United States for the past 17 years, according to U.S. News & World Report’s survey of research-oriented medical schools. The School is consistently among the nation’s top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $409 million awarded in the 2014 fiscal year. The University of Pennsylvania Health System’s patient care facilities include: The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Penn Presbyterian Medical Center — which are recognized as one of the nation’s top “Honor Roll” hospitals by U.S. News & World Report — Chester County Hospital; Lancaster General Health; Penn Wissahickon Hospice; and Pennsylvania Hospital — the nation’s first hospital, founded in 1751. Additional affiliated inpatient care facilities and services throughout the Philadelphia region include Chestnut Hill Hospital and Good Shepherd Penn Partners, a partnership between Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network and Penn Medicine.

Penn Medicine is committed to improving lives and health through a variety of community-based programs and activities. In fiscal year 2014, Penn Medicine provided $771 million to benefit our community.

About Safeguard Scientifics

Safeguard Scientifics (NYSE:SFE) has a distinguished track record of fostering innovation and building market leaders. For more than 60 years, Safeguard has been providing growth capital and operational support to entrepreneurs across an evolving spectrum of industries. Today, Safeguard is focused specifically on healthcare and technology.