Orange County Business Journal |Boston Scientific Likes Innovation Institute Number
Device Maker’s Head Says It Likes Multiple Partners
The Innovation Institute LLC’s “multiple constituents” were a major factor in Boston Scientific Corp.’s move to be its inaugural medical technology partner, according to a company executive.
The La Palma-based institute’s purpose is to develop healthcare products and services, and it consists of a medical technology incubator, an investment fund, and a shared services group.
It was established in 2013 with an investment from Irvine-based St. Joseph Health. Its other three investor-owners are Children’s Hospital of Orange County in Orange; Mitchellville, Md.-based Bon Secours Health System and the Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady in Baton Rouge, La.
Each of those institutions has contributed at least $10 million to become institute member-owners.
Natick, Mass.-based Boston Scientific will be working with the institute on healthcare technology and ideas to improve healthcare delivery, said Mark Toland, the device maker’s senior vice president of corporate accounts and healthcare solutions.
“We’ll be assessing innovative ideas that may relate to our products or may relate to the overarching healthcare ecosystem,” he said.
“There’s very few innovation institutes around the world that have multiple constituents, not just founding members, but also multiple healthcare systems that feed into it,” Toland said, noting that most institutes are tied to one particular hospital.
Boston Scientific, a diversified device maker, had an OC presence through its 2012 purchase of Cameron Health Inc., an implantable heart defibrillator maker that was headquartered in San Clemente. It paid $150 million in cash for Cameron, and later closed the facility.
Toland also praised the institute’s leadership team, noting that Chief Executive Joe Randolph and Larry Stofko, an executive vice president who oversees the institute’s innovation laboratory, “come from healthcare.”
Randolph is a former chief operating officer at St. Joseph Health, and Stofko was previously the hospital operator’s senior vice president and chief information officer.
“They’ve been living healthcare for their entire careers,” Toland said. “That’s a real valuable asset, because you want somebody who’s got credibility in the healthcare space.”
