BEAVERTON, Ore. – The Health Technology Collaborative (HTC), a Beaverton-based non-profit that clusters younger-stage health technology-focused companies, will utilize a $149,000 Business Oregon High Impact Opportunity Grant to study and validate the need and configuration of a new “inventor space” design.
The grant, awarded by the Oregon Innovation Council of Business Oregon, makes possible a feasibility study which was broadly endorsed among Oregon’s tech sector. Letters of support on behalf of the HTC came from the Portland Incubator Experiment, Oregon Bioscience Incubator, Oregon Translational Research and Development Institute, Portland Community College’s Science and Technology Division, and Intel’s IoT Group Health Business Unit.
The HTC, formerly known as the Digital Health Collaborative, fosters entrepreneurs and emerging companies by providing creative, collaborative space where companies can test the boundaries of healthcare by building and innovating new “Internet of Things” (IoT) products, services and technologies.
Frank Ille, the managing partner at HTC, describes the inventor space, “It’s a prototype lab where health technology companies, innovators and entrepreneurs engage in iterative and collaborative development. The concept is centered on providing the custom resources to support fast prototyping, standards alignment, and cross-platform device checking, as well as system compatibility.”
According to Charles Austen Angell, principal investigator for the feasibility study, “The goal is to study the need for an inventor space in the broader health technology landscape in Oregon.” He adds, “This means talking with stakeholders across the spectrum, from digital health companies to health technology manufacturers and then identifying their key needs and opportunities for accelerating technology and industry growth.” ”
“Our initial hypothesis is that an Inventor Space must have value across the spectrum of companies and organizations within the state,” explains Angell. “We want to provide, student entrepreneurs, health systems and average citizens with the tools necessary to invent the next generation of healthcare products.”
“We continue to explore and foster innovation and technology in Beaverton,” said Mayor Denny Doyle. “We look forward to this study’s recommendations about how we can join hands with the HTC to provide Oregon companies with a strategic advantage as they invent products to better the health of our world.”
About the Health Technology Collaborative
The Health Technology Collaborative (HTC), formerly known as the Digital Health Collaborative (DHC) is an innovation hub and industrial makers’ space designed to support regional health technology and Internet-of-Things markets. Residents companies include Curadite, HealthSaaS, and Modern Edge Inc.
Formed from the need to be in close proximity with other similar technology companies, the founders of the HTC know the benefits of this shared experience. In addition to the practicalities of clustering, the focus is to support larger healthcare and technology companies by creating an industry-driven collaborative that can help accelerate product development, partnering and market awareness.
Through access to shared prototyping equipment, software/cloud services, testing resources, manufacturing/product design expertise, and technology networking, the HTC has the potential to become the product development nexus point for “Internet of Medical Things” companies in Oregon and beyond.
Download: http://htcolab.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/HTC-Press-Release_05-22-2019_FINAL.pdf