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Wendy Harris[/caption]
Shortly after the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) named Wisconsin a finalist as part of the national Tech Hubs program, awarding the state
$49 million, the leaders behind
Wisconsin’s Biohealth Tech Hub (WBHTH) announced the
six regional projects that will be supported through the funding.
The projects include the creation of a Health Data Hub at
UW-Madison; the creation of CAREScan Mobile Screening Centers in partnership with the
Medical College of Wisconsin; a theranostics-centered patient care pathway project led by
GE HealthCare; an innovation to commercialization project aimed at supporting inventors; a new biohealth careers pathway; and the creation of a new steering committee to guide the projects to pre-determined milestones.
Wendy Harris, the newly named regional innovation officer of the WBHTH, has been tasked with keeping all of these projects on time and organized so they can continue to gain access to their respective funding pools. Harris is a former GE HealthCare executive with 33 years of experience in the medical technology field.
During an interview with BizTimes reporter Ashley Smart, Harris talked about how the six-interconnected projects must move forward to make the tech hub an overall success.
What are you responsible for as the tech hub’s regional innovation officer?
"My role is primarily to lead the strategy for the tech hub overall, along with making sure the projects are implemented. I'll be hiring individuals (including) a project manager role, a grant specialist role and a communications role. I will lead that team to make sure the tech hub is all moving forward in the right direction. I also am the key contact for the EDA in terms of cultivating the project funding and making sure that all the projects are working together. One of the concerns of the EDA is that over five years... that's a pretty long time period. A lot of things can change. Some of the strategies can change. The technologies can change when you're working with technical projects. My role is to make sure that we adhere to what we set out to do, and ultimately I'm responsible for the job creation and the growth of the tech hub."
Are you keeping track of what the other federal hubs are doing?
“Absolutely, I was in (Washington) D.C. last week with all the other hubs and the other regional innovation officers. We actually have (found) a good way to collaborate. Now, this is somewhat outside of the EDA, but there are certain hubs, like with Indiana and with Birmingham and some others that have similar interests. We want to make sure that we understand what they're doing if they have some projects in the biohealth space. None of them are completely similar, but (we’re) making sure we understand, particularly on the governance side, how they're running their tech hub, how they're running their steering committee and their consortium, and just getting best practices.”
Is there a timeline for which regional project launches first?
“They all have to go forward at the same time. That makes it more difficult, right? The technology projects all work together very closely. (For) the Health Data Hub, they're putting that together right now. They're putting together how they will integrate the data from the different health systems. The screening project is looking at activating the community. I was just there (at the Medical College of Wisconsin) on Friday where we had a meeting with the community engagement leaders to make sure that we can accurately reach out to these communities that we need to engage for the screening program. And then the GE project is looking at their software and theranostics advancement. The way the projects all work together, as an example, is we need to start the screening, so that will go forward, and then the people we get into the screening program will feed the health data hub, and then that will identify the right people for the theranostic procedures. All three technology projects must go forward at the same time. If you just move forward with the health data project and wait until you understand the health data, you wouldn't be incorporating the communities that we want to reach out to for screening."
When will the first CAREScan Mobile Screening Center be ready?
“Within the next year. We'll be starting with one and that will focus on the Milwaukee area and tribal communities. All our projects have a goal of being franchised and kind of self-sufficient. One thing that the government doesn't want to do is have, when the federal funding goes away, the projects go away. You have to have a solid plan. By the end of five years, you're going to be self-sufficient, and you're going to have a model that will bring in revenue, and in this case, screening and franchise opportunities outside just your state. That’s the whole idea."
Are there estimates as to how much funding each project requires?
"Each project has a specific funding level it will receive. We do have that broken down. We are not necessarily disclosing that data, but all of them are in the $10 million to $15 million range. It's very specific. I don't want people to think this kind of money is just out there. It's actually narrowed down to a specific amount for equipment, and this much is for a project lead, and this much is for a scientist that is doing this. The cost for each project is very detailed."
How will the tech hub help speed up the process of commercializing innovations? Aren’t there already organizations that help do this work?
"One of the first things we'll be doing with that project is specifically around Forward BIOLABS. It will be a shared lab space. Forward BIOLABS exists in medicine today. It's been really successful. I think 40 companies have come through the program and it's a shared lab space. It takes away some of that concern with startups in terms of having to fund not only the real estate of the lab space, but the equipment. We'll be starting one of those in Milwaukee. We've already been on tours, looking at locations. That will help the startup community. That doesn't really exist in Milwaukee, (not) that I'm aware of. There are other kinds of wraparound services, particularly focused on quality engineers and regulatory things that small companies, particularly in the biohealth space, oftentimes don't have it. They don't understand the regulatory environment. They don't understand their quality processes and what would allow them to actually sell to someone in the biohealth industry."
Where will the tech hub’s governance/leadership team be working?
"We'll focus the tech hub more in the Milwaukee area, primarily because I'm here, but also the three employees that I'll be hiring will probably be in the Milwaukee area. We are looking at an office space. It'll be small, obviously, because there's only four of us. Then we will want some space for the startup community, if they have scientists or other people that need just office space.”
How exactly will the tech hub create jobs?
One of the largest growth areas, with 21% projected annual growth, is in the genomics and health data area. Big data and analytics. That is our first project. It's also our largest project in terms of dollars and resources. So, 21% growth, which is really much higher than the overall (job growth total that) we projected. When people think about the 30,000 (job total) we already have over 10,000 (people working) in personalized medicine, specifically in Wisconsin. The growth of that (total) is over a 10-year period. As I mentioned earlier, we have a strategy to franchise and grow over 10 years. That's where the 30,000 number comes from. So, for example, the data scientist field, and the AI field that will be part of it, will create an enormous amount of data, but also a lot of software and a lot of applications that spin off of that. For the screening project specifically, those are clinical people, but also community engagement leaders and so forth that will be getting people into the screening programs. And for the GE project specifically, there'll be engineers that will be part of GE Healthcare. We have already had many sessions (regarding) our workforce project around growth of quality engineers, lab managers, CNC programmers, electrical technicians. Those are the types of jobs that we are looking to create.”
What else is important for Wisconsinites to know?
"The three technology projects all work together. We have letters of intent and MOUs between those three organizations to move them all forward at the same time and make sure that they're all working cohesively. I think some people think that these projects just all kind of go out and do their own thing, and then, you know, hopefully, five years later they all achieve their goals. But that's the advantage of the tech hub, having that collaborative model. Otherwise, these companies could just go run their own projects on their own. I think that's kind of the value of the tech hub."
