In the health care industry there is an almost universal feeling that the way things are being done can be improved. That's what health reform is all about, and that's one of the reasons why companies like Edison National Medical (ENM) stand to make a big difference. Providing an avenue for ideas to become actually commercialized in the marketplace is their specialty. HCB News spoke to the company's president, Bobby Grajewski, to find out what that really means.

HCB News: For readers who are unfamiliar, can you provide a brief overview of Edison Nation Medical (ENM)?

Bobby Grajewski: ENM brings healthcare innovation ideas to life. In order to accomplish this, we provide a clear pathway for anyone – physicians, nurses, entrepreneurs, even patients and caregivers – to submit their medical invention ideas for in-depth review and potential commercialization.

ENM’s goal is to become the largest open innovation platform focused on healthcare. We accomplish this goal by attracting innovative healthcare ideas, inventions, and entrepreneurial ventures through the deep partnerships that we have developed. Our partnerships include those with leading healthcare systems such as Carolinas HealthCare System, The Greater New York Hospital Association, and Mount Sinai Health System, leading retailers such as Rite Aid Corp., and with universities that we have relationships with. Over 100+ searches and challenges go out to their employees, customers, patients, and constituents, who then respond with their related innovation healthcare inventions and ideas.

Once we have confidentially and securely aggregated these inventions, ENM then specializes in providing professional, unbiased evaluation of these inventions while concurrently having deep experience in inventor relations and communication. For those inventions and idea that meet our criteria, ENM has the in-house development and prototyping capabilities to make these technologies “market ready” and a proven track record in successful commercialization through licensing and company incubation.

Our tremendous expertise in inspiring healthcare innovation, combined with our ability to efficiently and effectively evaluate healthcare technologies and then ultimately successfully commercialize them, makes ENM truly unique.

HCB News: Which invention coming through the ENM pipeline are you most excited about/will be the most disruptive?

BG: One product that ENM has helped develop from concept to market ready product that I am very excited about is the GuardianOR. Invented by a former medical device representative who realized that operating rooms and emergency rooms lose billions of dollars of equipment per year due to inadvertent disposal, the GuardianOR is an innovative point of loss, metal detection system that provides both audible and visual alerts to medical personnel at the point of loss when surgical instruments have passed through the unit. In an industry where cost reduction is now front and center, the GuardianOR mitigates this multibillion-dollar per year cost, thus saving healthcare system tremendous amounts of money.

HCB News: Which areas of healthcare have the biggest potential for disruption/biggest hurdles to overcome?

BG: The healthcare industry today is incredibly inefficient in both collaboration and care delivery. Far too often there is tremendous amounts of waste due to a lack of coordination, communication, and accountability. This is both due to structural inefficiencies from regulatory and clinical burdens as well as systemic industry issues related to the economics of care and the large bureaucracies in which healthcare systems operation. Though this is changing due to catalysts such as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the development of new technologies that enable greater efficiency, there is still much improvement that needs to be made in a very short period of time to ensure our healthcare industry’s survival.

HCB News: How can readers decipher if their ideas have potential in today’s marketplace?

BG: Submitting them to ENM would be the easiest and most efficient way to see if your idea has value, as our team of intellectual property, medical efficacy, and business commercialization experts will fully review your technology and evaluate if it has merit. If it meets our criteria, we, at no expense to you, will further invest in your technology and represent it in the marketplace to potential commercialization partners and licensees.\

If we are successful, we will split at least 50 percent of all royalties with the submitter. Alternatively, the inventor can meet with patent attorneys to review the intellectual property potential of their invention, interview medical experts to provide their efficacy feedback and if possible work to get their product tested in a limited capacity, and then ultimately invest in the business development to manufacture their product and try to push it to market on their own after receiving regulatory and clinical approvals. ENM takes the effort and risk out of the equation for the inventor.

HCB News: You mentioned that the ACA has impacted healthcare innovation. Can you elaborate on that? Have inventors been able to capitalize on these changes?

BG: As mentioned previously, healthcare today is incredibly inefficient in both collaboration and care delivery. This is due to both structural inefficiencies at the regulatory and clinical level and industry issues due to bureaucracy and the traditional economics of care delivery. For far too long, healthcare systems were weeded out the traditional healthcare economic model of pay-for-production and did not have a desire or need to adopt practices or methodologies that improved their efficiencies.

Now with the ACA and shift to population healthcare delivery, the healthcare systems own economic model has been completely reversed and it is now rushing to find the people, systems, and technology that can enable it to adjust to the new status quo. This has created growing pains and hesitation from healthcare systems and innovators as they wait to see what aspects of the ACA will be fully adopted and what will not, which has caused delays and inaction. However, this is temporary. Once time passes and the ACA’s effect become clear, both healthcare systems and inventors will react accordingly and bring and accept new innovation into the marketplace. By adopting services provided by companies like ENM, you will see far more innovation in this industry.


Bobby Grajewski is president of Edison Nation Medical and is best known for his expertise in building businesses and leading high-performing teams to achieve outstanding results. In his role as President, Bobby provides strategic leadership, financial oversight, and partnership cultivation combined with day-to-day operational leadership for Edison Nation Medical. Bobby received an MBA from The Wharton School (University of Pennsylvania), an MPA from Harvard Kennedy School, and an AB degree from Harvard University.