Case studies describe advances in medical technology and services happening in Greater Philadelphia

PHILADELPHIA — During the last nine months, the Health Care Innovation Collaborative, an initiative of the CEO Council for Growth, has released a series of case studies highlighting game-changing health care innovations happening in the Philadelphia region. Today, the organization is releasing a premier publication of them titled “The New Philadelphia Casebook: Studies in Health Care Innovation.”

The publication is a compilation of the eight case studies, created with the goal of providing inspiration and serving as a resource for health care entrepreneurs and business school classrooms.

“We want to highlight the extraordinary new developments coming from Greater Philadelphia-area health care companies, universities and organizations,” said Rob Wonderling, president and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia and chairman of the CEO Council for Growth. “Our primary goal throughout this process has been to highlight ideas and innovations that can be immediately applied to improve health care offerings here in Philadelphia, around the country, and even across the globe.”

With a focus on innovations that are changing the face of health care, the case studies in the publication cover topics ranging from cybersecurity for medical devices to a breast cancer tool saving lives in underdeveloped parts of the world to a unique partnership that uses digital technology to deliver personalized care management.

“We are honored to be included in this publication, highlighting our investment in Astarte Medical,” said Anthony Green, Ph.D., vice president, Technology Commercialization Group at Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania. “We are fortunate to be part of a region so rich with organizations and individuals committed to innovating and shaping the health care industry of the future.”

Since January, the CEO Council for Growth has released innovation case studies on a monthly basis. The case studies were:

  • Independence Health Group and Comcast joined forces to take the guesswork and frustration out of health care for patients by harnessing technology to deliver personalized care management and education.
  • Thomas Jefferson University is reshaping medical education with an infusion of design thinking. Collaborating across disciplines, students in medicine, design, and engineering build skills for finding solutions in the health care landscape of the future.
  • Frontier Programs from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) provides extra funding and support for CHOP’s most promising enterprises. Seven programs have been funded since 2015, with strides made in the fights against leukemia, inflammatory bowel disease, and mitochondrial disease.
  • Carelink CareNow, a robust information technology-enabled network of care coordination support services created by Christiana Care Health System. It uses IT systems to access all available sources of a person’s health data so that health care professionals can work together to assist a patient.
  • Astarte Ventures and Astarte Medical Partners teamed with a prominent researcher to develop NICUtrition Guidance and NICUtrition MAGI, products to optimize feeding, nutrition, and gut health for premature babies. Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania assisted financially.
  • Individualized Management for Patient-Centered Targets (IMPaCT), a University of Pennsylvania program sending health care workers into disadvantaged Philadelphia neighborhoods to improve residents’ health.
  • iBreastExam, a handheld breast cancer screening tool spearheaded by Drexel University. The device has been used in India to screen 75,000 women for breast cancer. It has screened women in Myanmar and will be launched in Mexico.
  • MedCrypt, a technology security company specializing in encrypting and securing medical device data, which received support and investment from Radnor-based Safeguard Scientifics, a growth-capital company.

View full casebook »