A new kind of research alliance is emerging between corporations and academic centers. Partnerships are replacing simpler agreements under which academic luminaries would test-drive equipment. Rather than taking what they get and doing the best they can with it, the world’s star practitioners are helping to tweak, refine, even direct the development of new systems.
Johns Hopkins University got in front of the curve in 1998, forging a deal with GE Medical Systems to develop a new MR scanner. Under the leadership of Dr. Elias Zerhouni, radiology chair at Hopkins, engineers from GE took up residence at the medical center, joining a multidisciplinary team composed mostly of Hopkins staff, to evaluate clinical and technical aspects of the new machine.
At that time, such close contact between researchers and company reps was unprecedented. Today, such collaborations are increasingly common. And it’s not a lack of research money that is prompting academic sites to take this route, Zerhouni said. Research funds from federal organizations such as the National Institutes of Health have actually increased in recent years.
“It’s the complexity of new imaging technologies, which demands teams of 10 or 12 people to fully evaluate them,” he said. “No one institution—or company—has that kind of expertise on hand.”
It used to be that companies conducted R&D at remote facilities under strict nondisclosure agreements, working on new tools that could have benefited from regular input by radiologists. Word about developments is now going out much more openly, and that has helped the flow of communication and speeded progress.
“With these new partnerships, the product cycle is shortened, because we are all working together to test ideas,” Zerhouni said. “In the past it was typical to have a piece of equipment on site, forward an idea about using it, and then have to wait three months for a response. Before you know it, a year would have gone by, and we would not be much further along than when we started.”
That first successful foray into collaborative partnering has become a model that Zerhouni has replicated with other companies, including Siemens and Toshiba, as well as continuing Hopkins’ relationship with GE.
