LOUISVILLE, Ky. (Jan. 16, 2012) — The International Center for Long Term Care Innovation (InnovateLTC) has signed an agreement with the University of Louisville’s Research Foundation, Inc. to accelerate commercialization of products and services related to aging.
Through an agreement outlined in two Memorandums of Understanding, UofL and InnovateLTC will work together to bring new products and services to aging populations worldwide. Researchers at UofL will help validate research findings and InnovateLTC will build the infrastructure required to bring innovations to the marketplace.
“Our partnership compliments the university’s current commercialization strategy for the life-sciences sector, while expanding services for products, service models and technology that benefit both the quality of care and the quality of life as we age,” said President and CEO of InnovateLTC John Reinhart. “We hope to not only encourage additional research, but also collaboration and alignment efforts to meet the ever changing consumer demands.”
In addition to potentially commercializing aging-related research and discoveries, the university’s executive vice president for research and innovation, William Pierce, said, “The partnership will also allow our faculty a chance to collaborate with industries and consumers in real world situations and that can be a real game changer. We are very committed to bringing the benefits of research to the marketplace as quickly as possible.”
InnovateLTC will partner with UofL’s Office of Technology Transfer to map out a strategy for obtaining trademarks, patent filings and licensing agreements. InnovateLTC administrators believe that the UofL partnership is unique because it uses an accelerated model of research, validation and delivery to reach global aging markets.
Pierce notes that aging-related research at UofL is conducted in a variety of disciplines.
“This would not be confined at all to geriatric medicine,” he said. “It would include disciplines such as engineering, social work, law and business.”
Reinhart said there could be vast amounts of untapped research that is ripe for commercialization but has gone unexamined because it does not fall into the traditional life-sciences categories of either pharmaceutical or medical device. InnovateLTC plans to accelerate products and service models that intersect with technology to develop innovations for the global aging population.
Further, Reinhart believes that expanding InnovateLTC’s partnership with UofL will continue to energize the city’s economic cluster around the Lifelong Wellness and Aging Care Initiative, a movement supported by Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer and Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear.
InnovateLTC is a business accelerator and connector that provides a path and development plan for those seeking to enhance the quality of life and quality of care innovations to the expanding Aging Care Community. For more information please contact Alicia Heazlitt, [email protected]
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