During its annual shareholder meeting on Aug. 5, UNeMed Corporation announced four new strategic initiatives that officials expect will help expand the scope and productivity of research commercialization across the UNMC campus.
Highlighted by a keynote address from UNMC Chancellor Jeffrey P. Gold, M.D., and a special award to UNeMed Board Chair Don Leuenberger for 24 years of service, the meeting was an invitation-only event at TD Ameritrade Park in downtown Omaha.
Chancellor Gold told the gathering of select university leaders, researchers and UNeMed staff that UNMC’s innovative researchers all share the same goal of improving lives. But that research can’t get there by itself.
“UNeMed is an incredible organization that provides the infrastructure, provides the glide path . . . and turns it into intellectual property that changes people’s lives,” Dr. Gold said.
UNeMed, the technology transfer and commercialization office for UNMC, also reported key metrics from the previous fiscal year.
UNeMed President and CEO Michael Dixon, Ph.D., said UNMC’s invention pipeline continues to thrive with 63 new invention disclosures filed in fiscal 2014. In the last five years, UNMC researchers developed 412 inventions — compared to the 291 filed during the previous five years.
Dr. Dixon also announced a 40 percent increase in total revenue, the fourth-highest in UNeMed’s 24-year history. The $1.11 million UNeMed secured in sponsored research funding was a 69 percent improvement over the previous year, nearly eclipsing the combined total of the previous five years. UNeMed also signed 20 licensing agreements for UNMC inventions, a 43 percent improvement.
Dr. Dixon also discussed four initiatives for fiscal 2015:
- The continued operation and expansion of UNeMed Health Consulting Shanghai. Doing business as UNMC-China, UHCS is now fully operational and already has licensed one UNMC invention to be developed in China, Dr. Dixon said.
- Working with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to develop a certified biomedical entrepreneurship course that aims to help UNMC students gain more business savvy.
- Collaborating with the University of Nebraska at Omaha on a third initiative: UNeTecH. It will be a support structure for biomedical and high-tech inventions that will bring together expertise and resources to build and develop innovative technologies.
- A next-generation approach to education with highly sophisticated simulation and training facilities. Called iEXCEL, Dr. Dixon said the program “is going to fundamentally change the way medical education occurs.”