"What if we did this on a county-wide community basis? What if the community took on the accountability to improve promotion, access and delivery of health care to our citizens? The research on these approaches and outcomes could literally make Akron and Summit County the next Framingham. The Akron Model would be cited nationally.”

Framingham, Massachusetts, has become a center for biotech companies in the U.S.  Douglas was recruited to come to Akron from the MIT Center for Biomedical Innovation.

 Douglas’ speech at today’s Akron Roundtable will be broadcast at 7 tonight on WKSU.

 Here is the complete text of today's speech:

My remarks today are not intended to be reflective of any political leaning. Rather, they are a compilation of my experiences acquired in innovation, commercialization and entrepreneurship over the past twenty-four years working in academia, large global companies, small biotech companies and in several locations in America, Europe and Asia.

 

In 1996, then-First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton popularized an old African proverb in her book It Takes a Village: And Other Lessons Children Teach Us. This book, or at least its title, evoked controversy that was peaked when Bob Dole, at that year’s Republican convention, retorted that “… it does not take a village to raise a child. It takes a family …” It turns out that they were both correct, because within the African context a village is an extended family.

I have chosen to use this proverb as a metaphor for my presentation today. I have lived and observed that there is a natural extension, which is: it takes the gifts from every child for the entire village to thrive.

This metaphor is applicable to an Akron in transition because like the family and the village, Akron, too must change. When Dole countered that it takes a family to raise a child, he was reflecting a view of the nuclear family in which families raise their children not far from where they themselves were raised, a place where companies were vertically integrated and generations of family members were employed by the same company.

The contract between these companies and their employees may have been an implicit promise of life time employment for past and future generations. Of course much of that has changed. Long distance commuting for work is frequently a necessity and it is now common for someone who lives in Akron  to work in Cleveland or for someone who works abroad to have a home base in Akron.

A few weeks ago, as we sat on the evening flight, from D.C. to Cleveland, three commuters began trading their commuting war stories. One female commuter has been traveling for two years and only spends weekends with her family, while a male counterpart indicated that he has been commuting for three years and he too spends weekends with his family. The winner was another man who has been commuting for six years but only spends every other weekend at home.  I should tell you that I could have earned the gold medal for commuting having traveled between Frankfurt, Germany and Basking Ridge, New Jersey for NINE years every 2 weeks.

 

While distance may be great, the tools of the information age, including Facebook and Twitter, have not only connected remote villages but can empower them to become global players. One example of the global technological impact is that of Wael Ghonim, the Google executive, who sparked a ‘new age revolution’ in Egypt. The lesson of this peaceful but powerful movement is that the children of a village can save the village from the tyranny of itself.

 

In 1977-78, IBM closed its Indian subsidiary and pulled out of India because, according to the company, the Indian government was unreasonable in its demands that it was entitled to 60% of IBM’s Indian operations. The Indian perspective was that “Big Blue” was asked to leave because it charged too much, brought in out-dated equipment and was not interested in negotiating better terms. Whatever the reason for IBM’s departure, what next transpired in India is instructive:

former IBM Indian professionals started small software businesses;

the Computer Maintenance Corporation (CMC) was formed to maintain IBM equipment and software; and

computer literacy became a national goal of the Indian people

Today the Indian computer industry has revenues above $60 billion and, in 2006, IBM announced an investment of $6 billion over the next three years, Cisco Systems invested $1.1 billion in the next three years, and Microsoft added $1.7 billion in investment over four years. The children of India, who had been trained by IBM and other western companies, have contributed their talents and led to the development of a thriving Indian information technology industry.

 

Another successful example is that of San Diego. Last month, the International Economic Development Council presented San Diego: A Case Study in Creating a Diversified Economy at its Leadership Summit.  Faced with having to evolve from a  military and defense based economy, San Diego started a consistent march to an economy that today includes high-technology sectors such as biotech, pharmaceutical, software, environment technology, and electronics.

Two critical actions in the diversification of its economy were the creation of the Salk Institute and the University of California, San Diego in 1960. Of interest is that the Salk Institute was initially funded by the March of Dimes and its current funders include the National Institutes of Health, Paris-based Ipsen company and the Waitt Family Foundation. San Diego’s success also has been attributed to the proximity and collaboration among its universities, companies and the city. Interestingly, on the Home Page of UC, San Diego you find the three phrases: Local Impact, National Influence, Global Reach.

 

A final example of transformation is found in Singapore. As you may know, Singapore consists of one large mainland island and more than 60 smaller ones. Its coastline is 120 miles long and its population is nearly 5 million – smaller than New York City. It was designated a New Industrialized State as it rapidly grew between the 1960s and 1980s, having used its superior location and well-trained, well-educated workforce to build its industrial sector.

In the late 1990s, Singapore became the world’s largest producer of computer disks. However, after 1997 many multinational companies began to move their production facilities to Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines where wages were lower.  How did Singapore react?

In 2000, the Singapore Economic Development Board, Bio One Capital and the Agency for Science Technology and Research (ASTAR) began to work together to fund and build life sciences companies and facilities. What resulted was a manufacturing boom in the biomedical sciences sector that rose 33% in 2003-04, and employment that increased by 7%. I had the privilege of being a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of ASTAR and witnessed the building of the Biopolis, an international research and development center for biomedical sciences, which was opened in 2003 and now houses 2,000 scientists from universities and international companies.

 

When I was at MIT, I was frequently visited by Phillip Yeo, the leader of ASTAR, as he engaged with the many Singaporean students studying at universities in the Cambridge/Boston area. ASTAR would select the best students each year and support their graduate education in Singapore or abroad. What was quite interesting is that when the students completed their course of study and returned to Singapore, they would receive a grant to enable them to buy an apartment and be on economic par with their peers who had entered the workforce instead of pursuing graduate studies. Here is a wonderful example of the village raising the child and the child returning to ensure that the village continues to thrive.

 

Now as I turn to the Transformation of Akron, I would like to share with you the principles I learned from these examples and how they are playing out in our wonderful City.

The first principle is: connect locally, think and act globally.

The City of Akron, founded in 1825, enjoyed many firsts and was known, not only by its famous moniker Rubber Capital of the World, but also as the City of Invention. Among Akron’s first achievements are the first automobile tires made in the U.S., the first zeppelin built in America, the first U.S. space suits and the first long distance electric railway in the world. However, with the exception of Goodyear, the city suffered significant job losses, subsequent to the departure of the tire manufacturing plants and companies. In 1983, the city created the Akron Industrial Incubator to counter the industrial downsizing and by 1994 had started a global outreach to Germany followed by efforts targeted at Israel and Finland.

In 2006, Mayor Plusquellic moved conclusively to strengthen local connectivity and competiveness, when he announced the formation of the Akron Biomedical Corridor. It was at the same time a clarion call for a focus on the life sciences and a way to connect through collaboration, the strengths of the Akron General Hospital, Summa Health Systems, Akron Children’s Hospital, The University of Akron and the Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy.

 

In 2006, the mission of the Akron Industrial Incubator was modified and its name changed to Akron Global Business Accelerator. This leadership was recognized in a 2007 Brookings Institute report A Restoring Prosperity Case Study: Akron, Ohio.  They wrote: In city after city where progress had occurred, vision and leadership, sustained over time and backed by resources, played a decisive role….Almost without exception the stakeholders interviewed identified the leadership, determination, and tenure of Mayor Don Plusquellic as the essential catalyst and driving force in the economic development of the city and region.

Thus Akron, like the examples I previously mentioned, began to practice principle one – connect locally … think and act globally.

 

Principle 2: Exploit the Common Opportunity

I have often marveled that groups are motivated to work together when they find a common enemy, but seem to have trouble capitalizing or exploiting a common opportunity.  The Austen BioInnovation Institute in Akron, or ABIA, will be recorded in history as the exception. I do not tire of hearing the story of how visionary leaders, such as Bill Considine, Luis Proenza, Tom Strauss, Lois Nora and Alan Bleyer, in tandem with and supported by Mayor Plusquelic, County Executive Pry and Akron business leaders, flew to Miami and successfully persuaded the board of the Knight Foundation that creation of ABIA was a project that would “promote informed and engaged communities and lead to transformational change.” This latter is one of the two foci of the foundation. Importantly, the two new leaders, Dr. Gershen and Mr. McKorkle continue to embrace this shared vision.

Thus ABIA is an uncommon institute that is focused on exploiting the common opportunity. It is an unprecedented collaboration of public, private and philanthropic organizations with the common goal of transforming the health and economic wellbeing of the citizens of Akron and its neighbors.

So what is the common opportunity that created ABIA?

It is the opportunity to bring together the polymer and biomaterials strength in the University of Akron with the expertise in orthopedics, wound healing and musculoskeletal biology at Akron Children’s, Akron General, Summa, and NEOUCOM to provide novel solutions for patients with these problems.

So how are we exploiting this common opportunity?

Please let me introduce you to one of the many successes that ABIA and its founders have experienced. Last fall, ABIA and the University of Akron Research Foundation were one of only six winners nationwide of the Department of Commerce, NIH and NSF’s i6 Challenge grant.

What was particularly important about this was the award recognized that ABIA and the founders had put together a coherent and replicable approach to identifying novel ideas; assessing the technical and commercial feasibility of those ideas; providing guidance and ability to develop prototypes and focusing on the critical experiments that need to be done to get to proof of concept. It also evaluates the design, manufacturing and regulatory challenges early in the process; assesses the commercial potential to spin out companies; and supports  and pairs the innovators with proven, expert leaders, who can give both technical and commercial advice along the path to a product. Thus, the ABIA processes, such as Synergy Seminars, Structured Innovation sessions, administration of a Technical Development Fund are all critical contributors to creating, innovating and commercializing products for our patients.

 

A second common opportunity is the common interest and commitment to improvement of delivery and status of health care, with a focus on the medically underserved. 

This commitment is proven necessary by the fact that each year each of our hospitals loses in excess of $50 million because of unreimbursed care. It is also demonstrated by the courageous merging of the county and city public health departments to further streamline the services. Our Center for Clinical and Community Health Improvement has been working with all partners to improve the promotion, access and delivery of health care.

 

The third opportunity is that which is being provided by our Center for Simulation and Health Care Education where the emphasis is on using simulation technologies to improve the education of the integrated health care team and early responders.

Each of ABIA’s Centers of Innovation already has had significant collaborations with institutions and companies both within and outside of Akron. For example, our Medical Device Development Center is leading an $8.1 million Ohio Third Frontier biosensors grant that includes collaborations with the Cleveland Veterans Administration, Case Western Reserve University, Parker Hannifin Corporation, Bertec Corporation, Ohio Willow Wood and Future Path Medical.

 

The third principle – work in the precompetitive space

The wisdom of these visionary ABIA founders is that they instinctively focused on the precompetitive space, a space where competitors recognize that none of them alone could succeed but by working together they can achieve excellence.

So the founders recommended that the initial work of ABIA should focus on using the polymer and biomaterials strength found at the university, the orthopedic and musculoskeletal biology strength in the hospitals and the medical university to innovate and commercialize solutions for patients with orthopedic and wound healing problems. This served to launch our Collaborative Research Development projects. We have funded eight projects where each has co-principal investigators from at least two different institutions, a clinical expert on each team, and the potential of getting to proof of principle in 18-24 months.

 

An outstanding example of working in the precompetitive space is the industry collaboration that we launched last November. The Akron Functional Materials Center is led by ABIA and the University of Akron. In this collaboration, companies including Lubrizol, PolyOne, Avery Denison and ExxonMobil are working together to find and characterize novel biomaterials that can be used for patient problems and other applications, such as sustainability and energy.

 

A fourth principle – never forget that the patients are waiting

It is for this reason that ABIA has a simple motto – focus on patient-centered innovation and commercialization.  In selecting the types of projects on which we work, we ask three questions:

What is the patient problem that we are addressing?

Does the science or technology exist to address the problem?

Can we get to proof of concept in 18 – 24 months?

As a result each of our collaborative research grants fulfills these three criteria.

We have introduced collaborative courses. One example our Biomaterials Innovation course which involves teams of students from NEOUCOM, the university’s College of Business Administration and graduate students from the College of Polymer Science and Engineering. These students shadow physicians at our three hospitals and are identifying problems with devices or procedures that need improvement. This course is led by Professor Ali Dhinojwala, chair of the department of Polymer Science, Professor Asoke Dey, of the College of Business Administration and me.

Clinical experts, such as Drs. Dennis Weiner, Scott Weiner, Todd Ritzman, Jeff Junko, Todd Beyer, and Georges Markarian are providing the clinical experience and discussions for these teams.

 

We also have launched our Women’s Entrepreneurship Program, led by ABIA, the College of Business Administration, College of Law and the University of Akron Research Foundation. Eight pairs of students, one MBA and one technical expert, are evaluating projects in biomedicine and alternative energy, with the use of materials from and facilitation by Mr. Thom Ruhe of Kauffman Foundation, which is dedicated to entrepreneurship.

 

We are learning a fifth principle – students are the connectors and vectors

Last year, we piloted the Biomaterials Innovation course as an independent study course with one team of two students. The results were outstanding. The team shadowed physicians and nurses in Akron General’s Wound Healing Clinic and identified 11 problems where solutions could improve the healing of wounds. Their work has led to an adhesives project, submission of an NSF grant in biomaterials and wound healing, and supported an appropriations request to the Department of Defense, which has cleared the first hurdle for a potential $5 million grant.

 

The final principle we have learned is what I call the Nike Principle – JUST DO IT!

Last October, we visited the FDA to introduce them to the Austen BioInnovation Institute. Two weeks ago, we were invited for a second visit as the director was unable to make the October meeting which was attended by three of his leaders. We were astounded when we walked into the room and were greeted by 12 members of the department. We had a very productive visit and had the occasion to ask why there were so many in attendance. We were told that they are visited by many groups, but the impression was: those guys in Akron are doing it! Many of them wanted to interact and learn more about ABIA.

 

So what are some of the other things that have been achieved?

ABIA was designated an Ohio Center of Excellence.

The City of Akron was designated one of Ohio’s Hubs of Innovation and Opportunity in Biomaterials and Medicine and ABIA was asked to coordinate the innovation aspects of the Hub.

We received a GAR Foundation grant to pilot our self- managed Diabetes Program

Working with NEOUCOM, we received a grant from the State of Ohio to serve as the exclusive evaluator of the Enhanced Primary Care Home Initiative

 

 

 

 

 

What are the highlights for 2011?

In addition to continuing the implementation of i6 and all our major projects, we want to launch three initiatives.

 

Value-driven Engineering and U.S. Competitiveness: The Chief Technology Officer of the White House asked ABIA to lead a national effort in what was initially called Frugal Engineering. We assumed the assignment and in our first Steering Committee meeting, the members who come from Stanford University, MIT, NIH, The White House, Medtronics, University of Akron, Orthopedics Research Clinic, the Johns Hopkins and ABIA, immediately suggested changing the name to that of Value-driven Engineering and U.S. Competitiveness. On March 10-11, we will launch the effort with a Summit in Washington, D.C. The outcome will be a Roadmap for this effort, which will be headquartered in Akron.

 

Global Organization for Orthopedic and Tissue Engineering Center (GOODTEC): This proposal is to create an incubator where fledgling startup companies can be supported with equipment and the capabilities from our i6 approach. This will markedly improve the chances of success of these companies and also recruit startups from throughout the U.S. and also from countries such as Israel, Finland, Germany. In return, we will receive equity in these companies so that as they succeed GOODTEC will become self- sustaining.

 

Accountable Care Community (ACC). We are all familiar or are becoming familiar with ACOs, Accountable Care Organizations. Our concept is to exploit an Uncommon Advantage in Summit County. The 2006 census revealed that the demographics of Summit County mirror that of the U.S. I have already commented on the Common Opportunity of working collaboratively to improve the Promotion, Access and Delivery of health care. What if we did this on a county-wide community basis? What if the Community took on the accountability to improve promotion, access and delivery of health care to our citizens? The research on these approaches and outcomes could literally make Akron and Summit County the next Framingham. The Akron Model would be cited nationally!

 

So now I come full circle to my opening salvo.

It takes a village to raise a child and it takes the gifts of every child to make the entire Village thrive!

The Austen BioInnovation Institute in Akron is a child that sprang from the brows of visionary leaders in Akron and Miami. It is like a Wunderkind that has already begun to

give back and fulfill its premise and its promise. It is for YOU to ensure its future growth and its contribution to the transformation of Akron.

Let me close by recognizing some of the leaders that are driving ABIA:

Mr. Aram Nerpouni

Ms. Christine Dodd

Dr. Brian Davis

Dr. Mike Holder

Dr. Janine Janosky

Dr. Matt Becker

Dr. David Kay

Dr Walt Horton

Ms. Rita Filer

Dr. Eliot Mastow

Thanks also to the many other leaders in our Leadership Team and committees.