In the health care industry there is an almost universal feeling that the way things are being done can be improved. That's what health reform is all about, and that's one of the reasons why companies like Edison National Medical (ENM) stand to make a big difference. Providing an avenue for ideas to become actually commercialized in the marketplace is their specialty. HCB News spoke to the company's president, Bobby Grajewski, to find out what that really means.

HCB News: For readers who are unfamiliar, can you provide a brief overview of Edison Nation Medical (ENM)?

Bobby Grajewski: ENM brings healthcare innovation ideas to life. In order to accomplish this, we provide a clear pathway for anyone – physicians, nurses, entrepreneurs, even patients and caregivers – to submit their medical invention ideas for in-depth review and potential commercialization.

ENM’s goal is to become the largest open innovation platform focused on healthcare. We accomplish this goal by attracting innovative healthcare ideas, inventions, and entrepreneurial ventures through the deep partnerships that we have developed. Our partnerships include those with leading healthcare systems such as Carolinas HealthCare System, The Greater New York Hospital Association, and Mount Sinai Health System, leading retailers such as Rite Aid Corp., and with universities that we have relationships with. Over 100+ searches and challenges go out to their employees, customers, patients, and constituents, who then respond with their related innovation healthcare inventions and ideas.

Once we have confidentially and securely aggregated these inventions, ENM then specializes in providing professional, unbiased evaluation of these inventions while concurrently having deep experience in inventor relations and communication. For those inventions and idea that meet our criteria, ENM has the in-house development and prototyping capabilities to make these technologies “market ready” and a proven track record in successful commercialization through licensing and company incubation.

Our tremendous expertise in inspiring healthcare innovation, combined with our ability to efficiently and effectively evaluate healthcare technologies and then ultimately successfully commercialize them, makes ENM truly unique.

HCB News: Which invention coming through the ENM pipeline are you most excited about/will be the most disruptive?

BG: One product that ENM has helped develop from concept to market ready product that I am very excited about is the GuardianOR. Invented by a former medical device representative who realized that operating rooms and emergency rooms lose billions of dollars of equipment per year due to inadvertent disposal, the GuardianOR is an innovative point of loss, metal detection system that provides both audible and visual alerts to medical personnel at the point of loss when surgical instruments have passed through the unit. In an industry where cost reduction is now front and center, the GuardianOR mitigates this multibillion-dollar per year cost, thus saving healthcare system tremendous amounts of money.

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