Growing biohealth industry in Wisconsin boosted with federal funding
For too long, the economic opportunity and growth of biotech has been clustered in a few cities on the coasts. That may be about to change. The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration Tech Hub program recently announced that Wisconsin will receive a game-changing $49 million in federal funding to advance personalized medicine, enhance health care outcomes and drive economic development. The news validates the crucial groundwork laid by the medical technology and life sciences ecosystem in Wisconsin, and points to the potential impact that could follow for patients and health systems worldwide.
Since 2015, Wisconsin has added over 15,000 new biohealth jobs, helping the industry workforce grow to more than 129,000 here with an average per capita annual wage of nearly $100,000. As a result, Wisconsin has become a hotbed for innovators who want to improve the human condition by creating new ways to diagnose and treat disease, resulting in $1 billion in R&D spending in 2020 alone. The state has emerged at the forefront of innovation and growth in personalized medicine and health technology. It’s a successful template that could bring economic growth to regions beyond the elite handful of biotech hot spots currently dominating the market.
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Steady investment and growth over decades have led to a pivotal moment for Wisconsin that will help redefine our state’s impact on the world. Our respective institutions, UW–Madison and GE HealthCare, have played integral roles in this expansion and served as a model for how industry and academia can partner to create a thriving and sustainable model for innovation.
How a unique Wisconsin partnership paved the way forward
When we began working together 40 years ago, most academic-industry partnerships were negotiated on a project-by-project basis, something we still see today. Through a unique “umbrella” agreement that enabled input and feedback across multiple lines of research and varied clinical settings, our partnership has resulted in more than 80 funded research projects, 20 joint inventions, hundreds of peer-reviewed research papers, and a talent ecosystem that has led to over 250 UW–Madison alumni joining GE HealthCare and other companies, including many based in Wisconsin.
Our partnership has moved magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology from dream to reality, helping to expand the capabilities and precision of how we visualize organs and other soft tissues to diagnose and treat patients. We have led the distribution of standardized, optimal protocols for computed tomography (CT) imaging to thousands of sites, helping those imaging teams to obtain consistent, quality images consistently.
Theranostics, a more recent innovation that combines diagnostics and treatment into one seamless step for patients with cancer and other diseases, and the use of artificial intelligence to make medical imaging faster and better are direct results of the work between UW–Madison and GE HealthCare. Our teams have collaborated to enable bench to bedside research, clinical care and training to come together seamlessly, yielding uniquely powerful collaborations.
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This is tech transfer at its best. Welcome to a living laboratory of R&D, where hypothesis generation and data collection are accelerated and combined with real-world workforce training to improve health.
Over time there has been a ripple effect that has triggered regional biohealth economic development, a beneficial byproduct that has been experienced statewide. Our collaboration has laid a foundation for the Wisconsin Biohealth Tech Hub, a broad regional coalition of industry leaders, research institutions, and community organizations fostering economic growth. It has strengthened the biohealth industry, and improved health equity.
Federal and state governments, industry join together to fund hub
This work led to Wisconsin receiving a Phase 1 Regional Tech Hub designation from the Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration last fall which cleared the way for Wisconsin’s most recent accomplishment: the tech hub that will receive $49 million in federal investments to drive collaboration, matched by state funding of $7.5 million (with strong bipartisan support) and industry funding of $24 million, bringing the total funding and commitments to over $80 million. These investments will support transformative personalized medicine projects that will enable tailored medical care based on individual genetic codes, medical records and environments resulting in improved outcomes at lower cost.
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We feel fortunate to have predecessors who saw the wisdom of creating deep connections that allowed industry scientists and engineers, faculty, and students to work “brain-to-brain” and elbow-to-elbow on cutting-edge clinical technology. From a partnership between UW–Madison and GE HealthCare decades ago, today we are now part of a regional tech hub, an ecosystem that is leading the evolution of healthcare. And whether due to Midwestern work ethic or a shared love for all things Wisconsin, our scientists and engineers have rolled-up their shirtsleeves to drive innovation for patients.
There’s a remarkable amount of synergy between UW–Madison and GE HealthCare that is now the norm across our Wisconsin tech hub. We share a belief in the power of creative thinking, hard work, and relentless pursuit of the common good to help humanity achieve its greatest potential. We have found strategies to cut red tape and collaborate across disciplines. We’ve found, again and again, ways to make progress. And it is making a difference for patients, for students, for workers, and not only for the people of Wisconsin but for patients around the world.
Jay Hill is the Vice President of Advanced Technologies at GE HealthCare, and Anjon Audhya is the Senior Associate Dean for Basic Research, Biotechnology and Graduate Studies at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.
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