Doctors at the Mayo Clinic have been quietly working with Boston Scientific on a partnership that brings together physicians who can offer real-world problems not yet addressed by medical technology with the know-how of device manufacturers.
 
News of the two working closely together comes just as clinical trials are moving forward for a new device that emerged from the collaborative.
 
The Star Tribune describes the device as a catheter with a funnel-shaped tip that helps pass a wire through heavily calcified heart valves.
 
The paper continues, noting that the Mayo-Boston Scientific partnership has worked on 50 different projects with about 12 that are ongoing. Several are expected to reach clinical trials this year. They only other project that they would talk about is an alternative use for one of Boston Scientific’s existing spinal cord stimulator products.
 
The partnership itself is a unique venture for Mayo Clinic. The health system said that many companies had approached them over the years that wanted to partner up, but then later come with a sales pitch.
 
“This really starts at the beginning. It’s going in with a blank sheet of paper, not us coming in with specific products and ideas,” Boston Scientific senior vice president Kevin Ballinger told the Star Tribune. “It’s engineers and physicians in their environment, jointly understanding what are some of the unmet clinical needs, before talking about product solutions.”
 
Mayo’s partnership is through its for-profit, intellectual property development wing, Mayo Clinic Ventures. Last week, TCB noted that the Royal Philips company would use technology from a MCV spinoff, Ambient Clinical Analytics, in a new patient-monitoring product.