Henry Ford Health + Michigan State University Health Sciences today announced the formation of the Innovation Hub, the partnership’s bold new initiative to accelerate commercialization of new technologies to improve health.
The Innovation Hub aims to narrow the gap between academic innovation and clinical implementation to grow early-stage companies that revolutionize care delivery, broaden healthcare access and enhance patient experiences.
“This is so much more than investing in startups — we’re truly investing in the future of patient care,” said Bob Riney, President and CEO, Henry Ford Health. “The Innovation Hub represents a bold step toward transforming breakthrough ideas into real-world solutions that will shape the next era of medicine right here in our own ecosystem. Good health doesn’t just mean medicine and doctor’s appointments – it means innovation, exploration and discovery, too.”
The Innovation Hub has three main components:
- Clinical Expertise – Clinical and subject matter expertise for technology assessment, real world evidence and data, and pilot and clinical trial sites.
- Entrepreneurial Support – Access to experienced health care entrepreneurs and suite of startup programming including customer discovery, validation and vast network of services.
- Venture Investment – Initial $10 million venture fund dedicated to investing in early-stage companies, including in digital health and artificial intelligence, medical devices and diagnostics, care delivery innovations and clinical workflow improvement.
Founding members Henry Ford Health, Michigan State University and MSU Research Foundation are providing the initial $10 million in capital for the fund, with the goal of investing about $2 million a year over roughly the next five years.
