Medical companies, hospitals seek stronger union

CNY Business Journal (1996+), May 13, 2005 by Tampone, Kevin

SYRACUSE - Proximity does not necessarily breed contact.

For example, Central New York has more than a few hospitals. The area is also home to a number of medical-technology companies.

And yet, there are few strong relationships among them, says Heather Erickson, president of CNY MedTech, a medical-technology trade association.

Local hospital officials agree. They say their facilities don't work much with area companies.

The potential benefits for all parties from joint ventures like clinical trials, however, are abundant.

"It's a disconnect," Erickson says. "People don't know whom to call or even that there's interest in doing something like a clinical trial on either side."

Erickson's organization represents 25 local companies. Bristol-Myers Squibb, ConMed, Intersurgical, Sensis, and Welch Allyn founded the group.

Medical companies and hospitals are often large, complex organizations with lots of people, which can make building relationships hard, Erickson says.

"If a company is going to a hospital, they might not be going to the right people," she says. "If they're looking to do a trial, they are probably going to go to the person who would use whatever product they're testing. That's probably a very busy doctor or surgeon with a thousand things they're trying to keep track of."

Dr. Paul Kronenberg, president and chief executive officer of Crouse Hospital, agrees with Erickson.

"Those relationships just haven't been built up and developed," he says. "I'm not sure what it would take for that to happen. Probably initiative and cooperation on the leadership level."

Kronenberg recently met with Erickson to discuss ways local hospitals can work more with area companies. Crouse has done some work on clinical trials in the past, but not with Central New York firms.

The advantages of stronger relationships among businesses and hospitals are great, Kronenberg says.

For example, if a company and a hospital join together for a clinical trial, patients would have access to the newest, most effective technology available.

"The hospital community could benefit greatly," says Dr. John Fazio, a physician at Community General Hospital and chairman of the hospital's investigational-review board, which reviews proposals for clinical trials and studies from staff. "You'd not only be helping patients in the study, but potentially helping future patients as well."

Community General does clinical trials and studies, but most involve cancer drugs and not local companies, Fazio says.

The cancer studies are generally sponsored by the National Cancer Institute and involve trying different combinations of existing drugs or using a drug designed for one type of cancer or another, Fazio says.

The task of improving hospital-business relationships is not without challenges, Crouse's Kronenberg says.

"It's sometimes hard to implement new things at hospitals," he says. "You're dealing with multiple doctors [and] multiple, sometimes unpredictable patients. It can be a tough environment to introduce something new into."

There is a foundation to build on. Welch Allyn, the medical-device manufacturer headquartered in Skaneateles Falls, regularly does trials and- testing with doctors at both Community General and Upstate Medical University, says Dr. Robert Corona, the company's chief medical officer.

Welch Allyn has done local testing of vital-signs monitors and electrocardiogram machines in the past. But that kind of testing is the exception, Corona says.

"You don't see a lot of companies doing it," he says.

From a corporate perspective, Corona says there are benefits to working with local facilities, even for a company the size of Welch Allyn, which has more than 1,100 employees in Central New York alone. It's simply easier to coordinate with someone nearby than with someone thousands of miles away, Corona says. Welch Allyn's department of clinical and medical affairs, which coordinates the company's trials and testing, is based in Skaneateles Falls.

Increasing connections between healthcare facilities and hospitals could have benefits for the economy of the entire region, Corona says. New York is among the nation's leaders in producing physicians, he adds.

"If you take that great educational product that we have and couple it with the medical device companies we have in the area, that's a pretty powerful combination" he says. "I don't think it's unreasonable for us to develop a health-care corridor in upstate New York."

One fact that could help further hospital-corporate connections is that both sides are open to the possibility of working more closely.

"You'd never say never," says Dr. Frank LoTurco, medical director at Auburn Memorial Hospital. LoTurco says his hospital has never done clinical trials and has no policies in place regarding them.

"If the right company came along with the right product, I'm sure we'd consider it," he says. "It's just not something that's come up yet."