Vanderbilt R&D Spawns Wealth of Health Ventures
Published Apr 30, 2009
Acting as both a research-and-development facility as well as start-up incubator for new technology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center is helping form multiple new lines of business in Nashville’s vibrant health-care sector.
The hospital’s high profile is due in large part to its clinical care, which often inadvertently overshadows its other efforts, says John Howser, deputy director and media director of the VUMC Office of News & Public Affairs.
“Perhaps we’re best known in this region for the broad and diverse expertise in clinical care that we deliver. What we probably don’t receive enough attention for is our massive biomedical research program,” Howser says.
VUMC ranks among the nation’s top dozen academic medical centers in receipt of federal and private research funding, he says. VUMC received more than $400 million in total research funding for 2008, he says, money that employs thousands of workers and helps fund thousands of active basic science and clinical research protocols.
“In addition to providing a huge infusion to the local economy, this funding is the fuel for the R&D engine leading to our discoveries,” Howser says. “The spillover from all this activity significantly benefits Middle Tennessee’s health-care sector in a number of ways.”
Ten companies operating in the Nashville area were start-ups that were based significantly on VUMC research. Another eight companies are the result of faculty members leaving and beginning their own ventures, Howser says.
All this comes at no cost to the hospital’s main mission of providing the best patient care possible; in fact, the two often work together.
“In addition to our biomedical research enterprise, which is dominant and will never be duplicated in this region, we’ll remain a leader in the delivery of clinical care,” Howser says. “We continue to provide a number of unique, highly specialized clinical services to Middle Tennessee. We will continue to play a leading role going forward due to effective leadership, and by focusing our efforts in those areas where we can have the most impact.”
Story by Joe Morris
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