SciTech Scity has always been a symbol of New Jersey's great potential for innovation and discovery. This week, we're one step closer to implementation.
Liberty Science Center hosted the inaugural meeting of SciTech Scity's Healthcare Innovation Engine on Thursday, bringing together more than 20 healthcare leaders from industry, government, and academia.
This group was convened to identify specific medical challenges that the Healthcare Innovation Engine would address, discuss possible prototype solutions, and set a path forward for development and testing of candidate solutions. I chose cardiovascular health as my.
Liberty Science Center CEO Paul Hoffman was excited about the selection.
“We chose a challenge in healthcare. Specifically, we aim to bring healthcare into people's homes through digital technologies, detecting diseases early, and in some cases preventing them. '' he said. “We're going to start locally and try this here in Jersey City in an evidence-based way that shows this works.”
Alex Richter, executive director and head of the Cytech Innovation Hub, is excited about the possibilities.
“Our initial focus will be on cardiovascular disease, an area where we believe there is a huge societal need, but at the same time there is an exciting amount of innovation happening and our partners also happen to be in this area. I know about it,” he said. “This is just the first focus area where we see a real need, but we are finding the most exciting technologies that we believe can offer potential benefits today and proving them with high performance in the future. We're going to look at other areas with the idea that we can do that.'' We need a community here in Hudson County where that can work. ”
That is certainly a possibility.
The Healthcare Innovation Engine includes representatives from RWJBarnabas Health, Bristol Myers Squibb, Sheba Medical Center, EY, Nokia Bell Labs, New Jersey universities and government agencies, among other top leaders.
Commissioners from the New Jersey Department of Human Services and Department of Health also attended the closed session.
Ahead of the next Engine conference, EY has assigned leaders to each of the group's work streams, run pilot programs and initiated market research for suitable technologies that can address the cardiovascular focus areas.
Healthcare Innovation Engine efforts work in collaboration with startups, community and health organizations, hospitals, universities, and other partners to test and validate specific products and solutions, as well as with the SciTech Scity academic ecosystem. Joint research activities will also be carried out. Gather the data you need to support broader adoption. LSC's extensive network of university partners includes Fairleigh Dickinson University, New Jersey Institute of Technology, New York University, Princeton University, Rowan University, and Stevens Institute of Technology.
Home to both LSC and Jersey City Medical Center, Hudson County will be one of the primary testing sites for SciTech Scity's digital health pilot initiative. It is the most densely populated county in the most densely populated state, and one of the most diverse counties in the nation, with more than 40% of residents being foreign-born and 40 different first languages spoken. One. Inland communities are also among the most economically disadvantaged and rank particularly high on indicators of health vulnerability, making them ideal testing grounds for addressing systemic challenges in health systems. It has become.
After the Healthcare Innovation Engine closed session, State Health Commissioner Dr. Kaitlan Baston spoke about the possibilities to more than 100 leaders.
Drawing inspiration from SciTech Scity, Baston emphasized the importance of innovation and transformation, especially through transformative partnerships. He said healthcare innovators create ideas, medicines and technologies that bring about impactful change, and that government agencies need to be involved to ensure these innovations are communicated to communities on a larger scale. He pointed out that he was doing so.
