Sandra PowellElliott How the Office of Innovation and Commercialization Helps You Innovate
What You Need To Know
- The Office of Innovation and Commercialization (OIC) was formed in late 2022 to help nurses, doctors and other HMH team members innovate and invent.
What we do:
- Deliver day-to-day technology transfer and partnership development services Invention Disclosure Reviews and Intellectual Property Development and Protection
- Patent Application Management and Prosecution
- Commercialization and Market Planning
- Partnership and Collaborative Development
- Licensing/Contracting and Company Development
- Assist in developing funding support for ongoing tech development
- Royalty Monitoring/Management
How the OIC Helps You Innovate: Q & A with Sandra Powell-Elliott
Sandra Powell-Elliott, chief innovation and commercialization officer, who was most recently named to the 2022 Becker’s Healthcare “Women Power Player in Health IT" list, answers common questions about how the OIC supports innovation.
What is the Office of Innovation and Commercialization?
The OIC is an incubator, a catalyst, and a problem-solver, all in one. We are the key pivot to get great ideas developed, scaled-up, and even incentivized as business ideas. If, for example, a nurse has a great new innovation to better tuck patients safely and comfortably into their bed in an ICU, that nurse could bring that idea to the OIC and get that great invention or innovation out for implementation across HMH. Eventually, with a great-enough idea, the OIC could help that nurse form a company and create a way to market the idea beyond HMH.
What does the Office of Innovation and Commercialization do?
We are a “one-stop-shop” to help the great talent become entrepreneurs in their own right, with the right ideas.
The OIC handles all the detail work:
- Deliver day-to-day technology transfer and partnership development services Invention Disclosure Reviews and Intellectual Property Development and Protection
- Patent Application Management and Prosecution
- Commercialization and Market Planning
- Partnership and Collaborative Development
- Licensing/Contracting and Company Development
- Assist in developing funding support for ongoing tech development
- Royalty Monitoring/Management
What is intellectual property and how does it work at HMH?
The network’s support of innovation targeted at transformative care delivery is evident in its inventor-friendly Intellectual Property Policy, which can be found on PolicyStat.
What’s in it for an HMH inventor to contact the OIC?
Employed inventors receive 50% of royalties/revenue generated from the invention (after cost re-capture) as a demonstration of the value we place on the generation of new innovative products and solutions. We are serious about sharing the benefits with the terrific minds we have here at Hackensack Meridian Health. This is how we build a community that pulls together, with every resource we have.
Who are the players at the OIC I should know?
I’m the network’s chief innovation and commercialization officer, and I head the OIC. Albert Baker, corporate director of Innovation and Technology Transfer for the network, works with me to help bring this office to make our considerable ambitions a reality.
How does the OIC relate to the Bear’s Den?
The Bear’s Den is part of the OIC. But they’re not synonymous. This is really important to understand.
The Bear’s Den has its annual Innovation Challenge, and it makes tactical investments in promising biotech companies, many of whom we partner with in the clinical setting. All this has been happening for several years already.
The OIC’s mission is to constantly push, inspire, assist, and incentivize those “Eureka” moments as they arise across our award-winning facilities, sites, and programs. We are looking to accelerate the creativity and passion of all our team-members year-round, and at the speed of thought.
More Information
If you have a question or want to discuss your idea, please feel free to schedule some time during our open-access office hours or send us an e-mail at: OIC@hmhn.org