Innovation + Job News

Women entrepreneurs have been really shaking things up in the Greater Cincinnati area. Twice during the past three years--both in 2009 and again in 2011--women have won  all of the prestigious SCORE-Greater Cincinnati annual Client of the Year Awards.

SCORE is the volunteer counseling arm of the Small Business Administration, offering free workshops and mentoring to its clients.

“Over the past few years, about 40 to 50 percent of our clients and workshop participants have been women,” explains Rick Johnston, chairman of SCORE-Greater Cincinnati. “We’re definitely seeing a trend of more local women becoming entrepreneurs and also SCORE clients, which we think is great.”

Landing a coveted Client of the Year Award isn’t easy, according to Bob Wiwi, marketing chair. “Candidates must complete an extensive application process on all aspects of their business, including the challenges they faced, how they overcame them, and how their SCORE counselor helped them.” Candidates’ counselors then provide a letter of recommendation describing their client’s work and progress. “The judges have a lot to consider when deciding on the winners,” Wiwi notes.

The Cincinnati chapter named four winners in November 2011: Connie Abirached, InkyDinkTs; Lisa Gear, Lunatic Fringe Salon; Candace Klein, Bad Girl Ventures; and Shannon Adams, My Flower Service.

“These women are creating jobs, and that’s terrific for our region,” notes Johnston.

Winner Connie Abirached says, “I learned long ago that, as a woman, success is achievable but also is harder to achieve unless you work hard, are deeply dedicated, and have ambition and guts.” Winner Lisa Gear remarks, “I feel so blessed and honored to be part of this amazing group of women. SCORE was so helpful to me on my journey, and I highly recommend them to anyone.”   

By Lynne Meyer


Sources:  Rick Johnston & Bob Wiwi, SCORE
                 Lisa Gear, Lunatic Fringe
               Connie Abirached, InkyDink Ts

Having been a teacher at various Youngstown area schools for several years, Elijah Stambaugh remembers the countless hours he spent just grading student tests.

“Teachers can spend up to a third of their time just grading papers,” he said. “To me, this is a fundamental flaw in the education process.”

Having identified what he perceived to be a problem, Stambaugh set about solving it. What he came up with is an idea for a test-scoring software application that he says is “a real game changer for teachers.”  

With assistance from the Youngstown Business Incubator, Stambaugh worked with a team of programmers and engineers to develop a web-based application that enables teachers to create, print, score and analyze their own tests and quizzes.

He launched his company--The Learning Egg--in June 2010 and named his software “Lightning Grader.”

“Lightning Grader lets teachers create a test on our website, print it out for their students and then scan all the completed tests on a copy machine to grade them,” he explains. “And it’s fast--grading up to 30 pages a minute.”

Automating the arduous task of grading is just for starters, however. The software provides several different reports on each student, which enables teachers to more accurately assess each student.

“Our reporting engine has analytics that give teachers a snapshot of each student’s strengths and weaknesses,” Stambaugh said. “This information lets teachers be proactive rather than reactive in their lesson planning. They can spend more time working with students’ areas of weakness, which benefits their students.”

The Learning Egg recently received a $25,000 grant from Great Lakes Innovation Development Enterprise. Stambaugh pre-tested Lightning Grader in three schools in April 2011 and is planning to officially launch the software in February 2012.  


By Lynne Meyer

Source:  Elijah Stambaugh

Bad Girl Ventures founder Candace Klein, a Cincinnati attorney, is making good on her promise to help small business owners fund their dreams through SoMoLend, a new lending platform.

The web-based, peer-to-peer lending site is designed to offer entrepreneurs a way to raise money for their business ventures from the people they know best: friends and family.

Through SoMoLend, entrepreneurs can borrow up to $35,000 dollars through the secure, patent-pending platform. Borrowers create a profile and loan application through the SoMoLend site. SoMoLend is geared toward small businesses, but will not lend to sole proprietors, Klein said.

Potential lenders, the borrower's friends and family, can review the business loan application, and if they decide to lend money SoMOLend will facilitate it. SoMoLend allows credit worthy borrowers to bypass the bank and borrow money at as low as 3 percent interest.

"This is all about getting money in small business owner's hands," said Klein, who founded Bad Girl Ventures, a Cincinnati-based micro lending organization for women-owned startups, in 2010.

Klein created SoMoLend following her experiences with BGV, which offers funding through a competitive process that includes an eight-week business course. BGV recently expanded to Cleveland, and is planning to soon be in Columbus.
Since its inception BGV has had 300 applicants, 225 in its classes and 24 businesses funded. But that didn't leave Klein satisfied.

"What are the other 376 doing to get funded? They're probably not getting money from a bank," Klein said.

Through SoMoLend, Klein hopes to help further fill the funding void. The site is up and running, with plans for a mobile version this year. In addition to the peer-to-peer aspect, Klein is working to get banks on board. So far, KeyBank has partnered with the site to lend at least $1 million to small businesses.

Klein is traveling around the state to spread the word about SoMoLend and plans to eventually have the platform available in all 50 states.


By Feoshia Henderson

Source: SoMoLend founder Candace Klein

CincyTech closed out 2011 with pride. The organization’s annual Breakfast Meeting and Startup Showcase last quarter highlighted the start-up incubator’s $10 million investment in 28 companies and the creation of nearly 300 Ohio jobs.

CincyTech receives half of its funding from about two dozen local partners and individuals, matched by money from Ohio Third Frontier. The organization began its work in 2007.

"Thanks to the foresight of the state of Ohio in creating Third Frontier and of Ohio voters in approving it, we have been able to begin building what is now a burgeoning entrepreneurial ecosystem that is churning out new companies and new jobs at a rapidly increasing rate," says Bob Coy, president of CincyTech.

According to Coy, in 2011 CincyTech led 50 percent of all venture capital deals in the region this year and 90 percent of the venture-backed deals in the region were CincyTech portfolio companies. CincyTech gauges successful investments, in part, by the exit of member companies with increased ROI, by the funding its companies draw from private investors, and by the new opportunities created within the Ohio workforce as a result.

“As of June 30, 2011, we had created 207 jobs at an average annual salary of $63,000,” says CincyTech communications director Carolyn Pione Micheli.

“In addition, AssureRx Health (in Mason) and ThinkVine (in Blue Ash) were each hiring dozens of people this spring, bringing their jobs to about 50 a piece. That will give us a nice boost in the jobs numbers, in addition to our new investments in the second half of the year,” Micheli says. “You could say we were anticipating having created about 300 jobs by the end of 2011.”

2012 will see the launch of CincyTech’s investor-only secure document website featuring investment data. The organization will launch an expected $6-million investment fund and will continue to sponsor The Brandery, the Cincinnati-based consumer-marketing startup accelerator.

“The climate and the resources available for high-potential technology-based companies in Southwest Ohio have never been better,” Coy told the crowd at the Breakfast Meeting and Startup Showcase in November.

Beginning this Friday, CinciTech beneficiary companies will take part in the Northern Kentucky Startup Weekend. Startup Weekends nationwide 54-hour events where developers, designers, marketers, product managers and startup enthusiasts come together to share ideas, form teams, build products, and launch new ventures. The Northern Kentucky chapter is sponsored in part by the CincyTech-funded Brandery.
 
By Kitty McConnell
Sources: CincyTech

Students in schools across the country start their day with news and videos from Channel One In New York, and now Channel One is turning to Youngstown to help deliver that content in totally new ways.

Perkins Communications, part of the Youngstown Business Incubator, won a contract with Channel One through Ball State University to upgrade their video delivery using the newest technology available in classrooms, including TV monitors, computers and smart boards, says John Perkins, co-owner of the company.

In addition to developing new software to connect technology devices in each classroom, Perkins is working to align video and computer equipment in schools and make it more interactive for students, he says. For instance, as students watch video about a news event, they can learn about websites posting more information about the event at the same time on their smart board, he says.

These upgrades are part of an initiative from Channel One to bring video technology in line with current Internet technology, adds Perkins.

Perkins was founded in 1999 by Joe Perkins, a former engineer with ABC, FOX and PBS. The company focuses on products and services that target advanced first generation computer and networking applications in education markets.

In addition to the contract with Perkins, Channel One also operates a Network Operations Center in Youngstown for all its Internet video downloads that go out to thousands of schools across the nation, he says.

Perkins has roughly doubled its workers from five to 10 to accommodate the contract, and more growth may be in store as the success of this project becomes well known in the marketplace, says Perkins.
 
By Val Prevish

To spur economic development and create jobs in their communities, several Ohio cities have created new, hyperlocal funds that offer attractive financing to entrepreneurs that may have the next great business idea, yet lack the actual cash to implement it. The catch? They must be willing to put down roots and grow their businesses locally.

One example of a growing Ohio business that recently took advantage of such hometown love is ManuscriptTracker, a Wooster-based firm that sells web-based software that automates the peer review process for academic journals. Co-founder Brian Boyer says a $35,000 deferred-payment loan from the Wooster Opportunities Loan Fund made it possible for him to bring his product to market last year.

“We saw lots of potential to grow our business, but funding is very hard to come by for start-up software companies,” says Boyer, a Wooster native. “Thanks to receiving funding last year, we were able to develop a market version of our software, as well as sales resources such as a database, marketing collateral and potential client list.”

ManuscriptTracker’s software organizes and automates peer review tracking for busy academics that don’t have the time or resources to manage the process themselves. The stringent nature of the peer review process, particularly with scientific journals, often necessitates involving as many as 20 individuals in a single review.

“To be published in an academic journal, your work must be vetted by the research of your peers, but that means asking top researchers to set aside their time,” explains Boyer. “We simplify and organize the process and provide helpful reporting forms. We also help academics to track who in their network is quick and knowledgeable.”

With the assistance of the economic development nonprofit Jumpstart, similar hyperlocal funds have also been created in Barberton, Canton and Mansfield.

As the New Year kicked off, ManuscriptTracker had already secured one new client, and Boyer says he’s hopeful that the new software will attract additional clients soon.


By Lee Chilcote

A partnership between two Ohio medical device companies could make getting a good night's sleep easier for people who suffer from sleep apnea.
 
The new SleepView portable sleep monitor and web portal lets doctors monitor patients’ breathing and other sleep patterns at home. The device meets American Academy of Sleep Medicine’s diagnostic standards, and offers quicker, more efficient and cost-effective diagnosis and treatment.
 
Midmark, a Versailles-based giant in medical equipment manufacturing and distribution, licensed the device technology from Cleveland Medical Devices, a leader in sleep diagnostics technology.
 
"SleepView enables patients to be tested in the comfort of their own bed and convenience of their own home for a more natural night of sleep, instead of going to a sleep lab," says Midmark PR Manager Susan Kaiser.
 
Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), is marked by sudden and frequent interruption of normal breathing during sleep. It's caused by a collapse of the upper airway and is estimated to affect as many people as diabetes. Still, most who suffer from it go undiagnosed and untreated.

Numerous studies link OSA to major chronic diseases such as stroke, heart failure, diabetes, obesity, hypertension and increased odds of serious car crash injuries, according to Midmark.
 
“We want to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of care for patients with OSA by providing another diagnostic option, which enables patients to be tested in the comfort of their own bed and convenience of their own home for a more natural night of sleep,” explains said Tom Treon, senior product manager for Midmark.
 
The system is available through prescription only. Patients use the SleepView self-test kit at home during their normal sleep time. In addition, the prescribing doctor has online access to registered technologists and sleep physicians who can interpret the monitor results and offer treatment recommendations, while protecting patient privacy as required by federal law.

Writer: Feoshia Henderson

A Mason-based company that designs and develops conveyor systems and other material handing solutions is doubling the size of its headquarters, creating 200 new jobs.

Founded by CEO Chris Cole and President and COO in 2001, Intelligrated is one of the North America's leading automated material handling solutions providers.  

This fast-growing company has more than 2,000 employees worldwide, including 200 at its corporate HQ in Mason. The company has developed and designed a wide variety of sophisticated automated systems that sort, move, distribute and control packaging and materials. The company's systems are used in the retail, postal, beverage, consumer goods, pharmaceutical and other industries.

Recently, Intelligrated announced it would create 200 new in the next three years and expand its operations in Mason. These tech-based jobs, which include engineering and research and development, will boost the company's plans for continued innovation and growth in the industry.

Intelligrated will also build a new 60,000-90,000-square-foot facility in Mason to support its growth. This new office will house R&D, engineering, sales, general, and administration staff.

Aiding this expansion is an incentive package of around $15 million dollars from the State of Ohio and the City of Mason. Though awaiting final approval, the incentives are likely to include an extension of Intelligrated's existing Job Creation Tax Credit, state and local loans, property tax abatement and a State of Ohio Grant.

“We aim to be the most technologically-advanced player in the material handling industry. To achieve this, we need an operation that houses the best mechanical, software and systems talent in the world. These incentives will directly support these efforts, help us create and keep more high-quality technical jobs in Ohio, and advance Mason as a strategic hub of our nation’s logistics network,” Cole said in an expansion announcement.

Intelligrated has 18 other locations, including key engineering centers in California, Maryland and Missouri, four manufacturing plants located in Ohio, Missouri and Kentucky and regional operations located in Georgia, Illinois, New Jersey, Ohio, Texas, California, as well as in Ontario and Quebec, Canada, Mexico City, Mexico and Brazil.

Writer: Feoshia Henderson

AmTrust Financial Services, a multi-national property and casualty insurer based in New York, is consolidating and relocating its Northeast Ohio operations to Cleveland. The expansion will bring 800 jobs to Cleveland over three years. The company currently employs 250 people in its operational hub in Seven Hills.
 
The decision to open offices in Cleveland came primarily from $25 million in local and state incentives. The company was able to buy the primarily vacant office tower at 800 Superior Avenue earlier this year and has committed to spending at least $20 million in upgrades to the building. But company officials also see the potential in Cleveland.
 
“We have found the governor [John Kasich], the county executive [Ed FitzGerald] and the mayor [Frank Jackson] of Cleveland all to be very cooperative and helpful in sealing our decision to locate in downtown Cleveland,” says AmTrust CFO Ron Pipoly. “We also think downtown Cleveland is on the cusp of a lot of great jobs, with the casino, the new convention center, the medical mart, the development of the Flats East Bank, a Westin Hotel downtown and other large projects that now includes AmTrust."
 
The Seven Hills employees will move to the Cleveland offices over the next three years. “Based on current projections provided to the state, there may be up to 800 new jobs, in addition to the 200 jobs being relocated from Seven Hills,” explains Pipoly. The jobs will be in IT programming, underwriting and customer service.

Under current plans, AmTrust wil occupy between 250,000 and 300,000 square feet in the building, leaving a portion of the total 450,000 square feet available for other new downtown tenants. 

Source: Ron Pipoly
Writer: Karin Connelly

(Courtesy sister publication FreshWater Cleveland)

The November CBIZ Small Business Employment Index (SBEI), a barometer for hiring trends among companies with 300 or fewer employees, increased by .35 percent in November. While the trend reflects companies surveyed across the country, “a good number of the survey respondents are from the Cleveland area,” says Phillip Noftsinger, business unit president of CBIZ Payroll Services.

While the trend is typical for the holiday season, Noftsinger is optimistic that the increase may lead to future job growth. “I think this time of year we would expect to see growth during the holiday season,” he says. “But we’re hoping a strong holiday season will support a longer term trend in these numbers. It’s a little early to tell though.”

A good holiday shopping season has the potential to continue into the new year. “Strong consumer spending sustains growth,” says Noftsinger. “We hope to see a continued strong holiday season, which leads to income growth and labor growth and an upward spiral in employment.”

Source: Phillip Noftsinger
Writer: Karin Connelly


(Courtesy sister publication FreshWater Cleveland)

Inspired by three daughters, years of amazing experiences and invaluable relationships, DAAP graduate Kristine Sturgeon has set out to break down the culture of average for teen girls.

Sturgeon’s startup, Design My Style, is a Web-based application that engages girls 13-19 years old in the design, sharing, advertising and purchasing of handbags. It allows young women to hone their creative skills while teaching them pertinent business lessons.

“Define My Style is a healthy rebellion against mainstream sameness for young girls,” Sturgeon says. “Young girls should be curious, confident and have a strong voice. We’re building a platform for this with DMS based around everything I want for my own daughters.”

CincyTech just announced it is leading a $690,000 seed-stage round in DMS with an investment of $250,000. DMS also received $100,000 from the Queen City Angels and $140,000 from Tech Coast Angels in Los Angeles. The remaining balance came from private individual investors. The company employs four people at its Mt. Auburn offices

Born in Tipp City, Ohio, Sturgeon moved to Cincinnati to study architecture at the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning (DAAP). Sturgeon credits her education there for giving her both business and creative abilities and sensibilities.

Graduating in ’96 with a bachelor’s of architecture, Sturgeon has spent the better part of the last 15 years working in strategic marketing and communications out of Chicago. Her experience in creating customer value, mutually beneficial relationships and learning what consumers need and want has given her a great understanding of both the business process and consumer desires.

The idea for DMS came to Sturgeon in autumn 2007, when her oldest daughter was getting ready to head back to school. Unable to decide on a school bag that gave her the functions she needed and was a design she loved, Sturgeon’s daughter was at a standstill. She knew exactly what she wanted out of a product – as most consumers do – but brands sold commercially weren’t interested in listening to her desires. Sturgeon saw a business opportunity.

With a sketchbook and a PowerPoint, Sturgeon created the first DMS beta and tested it with 23 overachieving, involved, young girls. The test group included the daughters of powerful U.S. executives, two girls from China, two from London and one from Italy.

It was evident the beta was a success when Sturgeon began hearing stories of how her product had inspired the young girls to be confident in the identity and designs.

From that point forward, Sturgeon spent nights and weekends developing the web application, investing more than $320,000 of her own money into the company. Today, the DMS site has nearly reached 50,000 members and recently launched a new product line – laptop sleeves and cases.

DMS is one of the first companies to establish the trend of individual branding with consumers wanting increasingly more control of their purchases in everything from handbags and shoes to cars and homes, says Sturgeon.

“No one is allowing complete consumer design collaboration on the web, and especially not for teenage girls.”

Define My Style is the 29th investment for CincyTech, a Cincinnati-based seed-stage investor focused on information technology, Web-based consumer services and life sciences/biotech companies.

By Sarah Blazak

(Courtesy sister publication SoapBox Media, Cincinnati)

As Ben Haggerty sweeps up from a weekend night’s business at his Bellevue bar, the B-List, he doesn’t act the part of an eco-warrior. But one conversation makes it clear that Haggerty not only knows the ins and outs of water conservation, he has a great appreciation for businesses working to preserve the environment.

From the time his father first built a rain barrel with him as a child, Haggerty recognized the importance of water. Today, he promotes those childhood values through his second business, Green Streets, LLC.

After getting the B-List up and running, Haggerty looked around the community, driven to make a positive impact on the city. His knack for rain barrels made their production and sale a natural choice for his burgeoning green initiative, a construction company.

With its focus on storm water mitigation, Green Streets works with clients who wish to install sustainable options in their homes and businesses. Haggerty works to meet every client at his or her level of commitment to sustainability. He believes every action towards sustainability is a good one.

“If I can get 1,000 people to take two steps I think it will have a bigger impact than getting 10 people to take 10 steps,” Haggerty says.

From a small installation of a rain barrel to a larger project of a green roof, every individual green decision, big or small, can have an impact for both the user and the environment. A rain barrel attached to the gutter system of a home conserves water for use on a dry day, making it possible to water a lawn and garden without using any new water. A green roof reduces run–off and insulates homes. “There is no limit to what you can do to utilize rain water," Haggerty says.

Green Street’s most public project was the installation of a green roof, watering system and rain containment system on City of Cincinnati’s City Hall in 2010. The vision began with Mayor Mark Mallory, who wanted to set to an example of sustainability for the city. Green Streets was subcontracted for the project and City Hall’s roof was transformed into an eye-appealing and water-conserving masterpiece that the public can view from upstairs windows of City Hall. 

More things changed within City Hall during that project than just the roof’s landscape. Outdated construction codes restricted redirection of water from a downspout to anything other than the sewer. They made it illegal to reorganize the gutters to flow into a rain barrel. City officials amended the rules to allow a more modern sustainable construction method for City Hall and paved the way for future water conservation initiatives. 

As he started Green Streets, Haggerty saw an opportunity to do even more. So he formed The Sustainability Partnership of Cincinnati (TSPC) to help consumers learn about investing in sustainable options and strengthen the Cincinnati’s “green” business community.

“It can be pretty confusing on what is going to be the best use of people’s money, whether it solar, geothermal or new insulation and so on,” Haggerty says. “So we have joined forces with locally owned and operated companies that are invested in the community, and we are able to help people navigate sustainability.”

Haggerty praises the growing network of people with similar goals in and for Cincinnati. One of the first green relationships he created was with Libby Hunter, an eco-broker for Comey & Shepherd. At the time she was known as Cincinnati’s only green realtor.

“It makes a lot of sense, particularly in this economy, to band like-minded businesses together to draw from their collective experience and resources,” says Hunter. “Working together helps each member of the TSPC continue to grow their own business under the support and guidance of the bigger partnership, as its recognition and reputation expands.”

Currently, Green Streets is looking forward to its newest project. Mackey Advisors, a wealth Advocate Services Company in Independence that was named Green Business of the Year of Covington in 2010, hired Green Streets to transform an historic building in Bellevue into its new headquarters.

“It will be the first true TSPC project,” Haggerty says. “We will be saving a historic structure in Bellevue Ky., and adding additional office-grade space, all with an eye for sustainable practices.”

Successful projects demonstrate Haggerty’s passion about making Cincinnati a sustainable city.

“Ben is incredibly knowledgeable,” Hunter says. “It comes from a deep conviction that we need to be re-considering how we live in our homes, how we manage our resources and water usage and waste.”  

By Erin Leitner

Erin Leitner, a new graduate of the University of Cincinnati, completed this story as part of a Journalism Seminar focused on Communicating Sustainability. Look for more stories from this class in Soapbox and around the city.

(Courtesy sister publication SoapBox Media, Cincinnati)

Cincinnati-based Procter and Gamble (P&G) recently announced the launch of PGT Health Care, a joint venture between P&G and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. of Jerusalem, Israel. The unprecedented partnership will allow two powerhouse corporations to expand into China and other burgeoning foreign markets.
 
“Together we’re better and have a larger geographical footprint,” says Tom Milliken of Global External Relations with P&G and PGT. “We’re combining two companies’ core strengths to more effectively deliver health care products to more customers.”
 
The alliance between the world’s largest consumer products maker and the world’s largest generic drug maker will allow PGT to reach consumers in emerging market countries such as Peru, Hungary and China. Strong consumer appetite for new products in such countries is fueling P&G’s domestic growth, Milliken says.  
 
“As a company with global headquarters in Cincinnati, this is important for us,” he says. “It will fuel our pipeline for over-the-counter drugs for many years ahead.”
 
Approval this month from anti-trust regulators in the U.S. and Europe paved the way for PGT’s rollout. Company officials say the new unit is expected to have revenues of approximately $1.3 billion, with the potential to reach $4 billion by the end of the decade.
 
Teva and P&G were thought to be a good match because of their complementary product lines and geographic footprints. PGT may now decide to combine P&G products such as Vick’s Cough Medicine with Teva supplements such as allergy medications, thus creating a new, blended product line to sell to consumers. Some of PGT’s new products will also be available in the U.S. and Canada.

Cincinnati-based Global Cloud is changing the way nonprofits raise money by harnessing the power of social networking to turn a $50 donation into $5,000.
 
DonorDrive, the software as a service tool that Global Cloud launched more than three years ago, has become a competitive product in the world of nonprofit development, where tapping into new sources of funding is a driving necessity during a slow economy, said Global Cloud founder Todd Levy.
 
“We saw that it was underserved and that we could compete,” said Levy. “We see a huge market potential.”
 
Levy said DonorDrive takes current donors and turns them into developers by allowing an individual volunteer to set up an event, such as a walk-a-thon, and create a DonorDrive page that describes the event and is easily forwarded to social networking contacts who can then give online. All the money collected goes directly to the nonprofit, reducing costs by eliminating mailings and promotional expenses.
 
“This makes it possible to hone in on (social) networks and take a $50 donation and turn it into $5,000,” he said. “A single donor becomes a network of donors.”
 
Global Cloud began as a website design company in 1997. Levy and co-founder Paul Ghiz had many nonprofit clients and eventually began filling requests for custom software applications for them. One of those software programs was for online donations.
 
They began testing DonorDrive in 2008 and have since rolled it out to hundreds of clients throughout the United States and Canada.
 
Levy said DonorDrive has been experiencing triple digit growth in sales over the past two years. DonorDrive will go from roughly 50 percent of Global Cloud’s business to at least 90 percent, he said, adding he plans to expand his staff of 24 by about 20 percent to accommodate the growth.

Three northeast Ohio businesses, with the aid of a $2.5 million grant from Ohio's Third Frontier, are researching first-of-their-kind imaging technology that will help detect medical conditions, such as cancer, sooner and save hospitals money by reducing the number of biopsies taken.
 
Case Western Reserve University, University Hospitals and Philips Healthcare, partnered in the summer of 2010 to form the Philips Healthcare Global Advanced Imaging Innovation Center, where they have multiple projects aimed at combining the best attributes of CT, PET and MRI imaging systems to give doctors better tools in identifying breast cancer and take earlier action in heart attack patients.
 
The projects, which combine medical imaging technologies already in use, could eventually save hospitals millions in costs, give Ohio a leg-up on their commercialization and--most importantly--save lives.
 
In one project, the partners hope to combine PET (Positron Emission Tomography) with Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) systems, both of which are currently used to detect early signs of breast cancer, to provide doctors with higher resolution imaging that will ultimately give doctors a clearer picture of what’s happening inside the body.
 
"The focus is on improving the spatial resolution, allowing us to find tumors much smaller than we can find now," says Dr. Raymond Muzic, the project's leader and an associate professor at Case Western. "MRI's, when used clinically, often show spots that look suspicious but turn out to not be a problem. Getting images with higher resolution will help us determine which spots are a problem and which are not."
 
The better imaging would reduce the number of biopsies doctors order to determine malignancy, saving hospitals thousands of dollars. It would also help doctors catch tumors much earlier, which could mean the difference between life and death.
 
According to the American Cancer Society, patients who are diagnosed with Stage I breast cancer, with tumors two centimeters or smaller, have up to a 20 percent greater chance of surviving cancer than patients who advance to Stage II, in which tumors are larger and start spreading to the lymph nodes.
 
The second project looks to do something similar--only with heart patients. Researchers are pairing cardiac perfusion technology with CT scanners, creating a novel imaging system that would allow emergency room doctors to assess the extent and location of damaged heart muscle when time is of the essence.
 
The partners are each contributing $1 million toward the projects, along with equipment and the time of researchers and engineers. Once the engineering is completed, University Hospitals and Case Western will oversee the clinical trials. Results are expected "within a few years," according to Muzic.
 
"The projects are a win-win for everybody involved," he said. "The goal is to develop a product here in Ohio that can be manufactured in Ohio by an Ohio company and marketed throughout the world. It's a win for each of the partners and it's a win for the state."