Tech Transfer Tactics, the monthly newsletter for Tech Transfer Central.com, has published a feature highlighting MaRS Innovation’s Technology Transfer & Scouting (MITTS) services to St. Michael’s Hospital.

The interview explores the increase in disclosures and commercial activity achieved after MaRS Innovation began offering technology transfer services to the hospital, and was triggered by a July profile published on MaRS Innovation’s website describing the collaborative working relationship between the two organizations.

The interview includes conversations with Sahail Shariff, commercialization manager in the MITTS division, and Samar Saneinejad, director of strategic projects in the Office of the Vice President of Research at St. Michael’s, explores the success

Here’s an excerpt:

MaRS Innovation, a member institution of the Networks of Centres of Excellence of Canada, has dramatically increased invention disclosures at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto by providing hospital researchers with an embedded technology transfer expert who offers commercialization guidance and access to other vital tech transfer resources.

Sahail Shariff, commercialization manager for MaRS Innovation’s Technology Transfer & Scouting division (MITTS), literally walks the halls at St. Michael’s, meeting with hospital researchers on-site and in person, as a key element of commercialization outreach efforts there.

The “walking around” strategy is clearly working: disclosures have increased nearly 50% since October 2013, and St. Michael’s has received five commercialization-related funding applications. Shariff has also assisted in connecting several of the hospital’s clinician researchers with potential industry partners.

The article appeared in the newsletter’s September 2014 issue. You can read the full text on Tech Transfer Central’s website.

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, director, marketing and communications.