New programs for translating research to patient care: Lessons learned at the NIH Center for Accelerated Innovations at Cleveland Clinic

Abstract

The NIH Center for Accelerated Innovations at Cleveland Clinic (NCAI-CC) was funded by the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) to support academic investigators in technology development and commercialization. NCAI-CC was one of three multi-institutional Centers established in the fall of 2013. The goal of each Center was to catalyze the growth of an ecosystem of commercialization within their affiliated institutions and regions by managing a program of funding and guiding translational project development and by delivering commercialization education programs to participating investigators. NCAI-CC created and managed such a funding program, ultimately supporting 75 different projects across seven separate academic institutions and developed tailored educational content following the National Science Foundation I-Corps™ curriculum and delivered the program to 79 teams from 12 institutions. We determined early on that in establishment and implementation of projects, it is important to support the teams and principal investigators throughout the program. The support includes a change in principal investigator mindset from specific aims orientation to goals and deliverables on projects. Our skills development efforts emphasized commercialization and a deep understanding of customer needs for new technology adoption. Here, we review our experiences, outcomes, and insights, including the challenges identified in program implementation.

Keywords: Research translation; biomedical innovations; investigator education; technology commercialization.

Fig. 1.

Map of NIH Center for Accelerated Innovations at Cleveland Clinic (NCAI-CC) partners in Midwest. Inaugural consortium was limited the five Ohio-based institutions. Once the systems were in place, the program was scaled to include University of Michigan and Northwestern.

Fig. 2.

Project selection process. NCAI-CC utilized multi-layered strategy to identify, develop, and fund projects. Overall success rate for projects from 400 letters of intent to the 75 funded proposals was nearly 19%. Abbreviations: CMS, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; FDA, Food and Drug Administration; LOI, letter of intent; NCAI-CC, NIH Center for Accelerated Innovations at Cleveland Clinic; NHLBI, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute; PI, principal investigator; RFA, Request for Application; USPTO, United States Patent and Trademark Office.