GCMI Opens Medtech Product Development Center

The Global Center for Medical Innovation (GCMI) officially opened its doors on April 18. GCMI, a partnership between Georgia Institute for Technology (Georgia Tech), Saint Joseph’s Translational Research Institute, Piedmont Healthcare and the Georgia Research Alliance (GRA), was granted $2.6 million to build the Southeast’s first comprehensive medical device innovation center in mid-2010. Half of the funding came from the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA), and the rest was matched by the GRA. The EDA is a branch of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

According to GCMI’s website, the center is an independent, not-for-profit, full-service product development organization that will help new-product teams enhance their product development, shorten time to market, and achieve significant cost savings throughout the process.

“GCMI has built and equipped a prototyping design and development facility that will accelerate the commercialization of next-generation medical devices and technology,” said H. Wayne Hodges, GCMI’s executive director. “The center has the equipment, clean room facilities, engineering expertise and partner network needed to help bring ideas from concept to market.”

Acting assistant secretary of economic development at the EDA, Matt S. Erskine, flew in from Washington, D.C., to speak at the opening.

“We believe GCMI will help Atlanta and the entire Southeast accelerate development of the next generation of medical devices,” he said. Erskine lauded the GCMI as the institution his department points to to demonstrate a successful private/public partnership that creates jobs and returns on investment.

“We have had to rethink economic development,” Erskine continued. “There is a new economic reality, and communities can’t thrive by returning to the status quo. We have to find new ways to create jobs, and that growth is coming from entrepreneurs. We have found that supporting regional resources like GCMI offers the best return on investment by driving innovation and increasing exports.”

GCMI General Manager Doug Schumer, Ph.D., said the group’s role as technology incubator and facilitator is perhaps its most exciting.

“To me,” Schumer said., “the greatest thing GCMI will do is to help bring to life devices that otherwise might never see the light of day. There are many doctors out there with good ideas, but who don’t know how to bring that idea to commercial fruition. GCMI will be able to help.”

The GCMI center is located in Atlanta, Ga., near Georgia Tech and Atlantic Station. The center features engineering and computer aided design spaces, clean assembly and sterile packaging, a physical testing lab and a training area.