By Barbara Myers, Suwanee, Ga. | Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (PCOM) has committed through its Foundation the allocation of $5 million to a new venture capital fund designed to stimulate innovation and entrepreneurship in the healthcare field, with a specific focus on primary care. Investments from across the country are being considered, with a focus on the Philadelphia and Atlanta metro areas, as PCOM’s branch campus (GA-PCOM) is located in Suwanee.
As part of a campus-wide Town Hall Meeting on September 14, both Jay S. Feldstein, DO ’81, president and CEO of PCOM, and Dean Miller, who will serve as Fund Manager, discussed how the fund will work to connect the College with innovations in healthcare.
Michael Cassidy, president and CEO of the Georgia Research Alliance (GRA), represents Georgia on the fund’s advisory board and says: “I am excited that PCOM will focus on investments to improve healthcare in Georgia and across the country. There are many opportunities for collaboration with healthcare institutions in the state.” The GRA is a not-for-profit organization that grows Georgia’s economy by expanding university research capacity and by seeding and shaping startup companies around inventions and discoveries.
The Primary Care Innovation Fund is the first such endeavor in the College’s 117-year history and will invest in companies with established products and services that are healthcare-related and focused on primary care. PCOM is the first osteopathic medical school to establish such a fund.
The establishment of the fund underscores the College’s mission of advancing knowledge and intellectual growth broadly, and its commitment to the well-being of the community through leadership and service, according to Dr. Feldstein. He says: “The osteopathic philosophy focuses on prevention and maintaining wellness, and seeing the patient as a whole person—not just their symptoms. Through the Primary Care Innovation Fund, PCOM can extend that philosophy by investing in innovative opportunities nationally to improve and maintain patients’ quality of life.”
Feldstein adds that he is hopeful the more than 13,000 osteopathic physicians and other healthcare professionals whom PCOM has educated could benefit from these innovations by addressing the quality, access and affordability of healthcare for their patients.
Miller says: “The primary care clinician is the point person for chronic conditions that patients face. To that end, it is a natural fit for PCOM to lead the way in promoting innovation within primary care by investing in companies that can address and prevent those conditions.”
Miller is a private equity and venture capital investor with strong regional and national ties to the healthcare and technology sectors. Miller also serves as president and CEO of the Philadelphia Alliance for Capital and Technologies and as a partner at Evergreen Industries LLC.
The fund will also provide many benefits for the College’s students, faculty, staff and alumni by opening doors financially to those who have a product or service appropriate for funding, and connecting those individuals to learning and networking opportunities within the investment community. The fund will focus on producing financial returns and as a result, offers the College a potential revenue stream that is not tuition-based.
An advisory board comprised of physicians and business operators from Philadelphia and Atlanta will assist Miller in determining the feasibility and market demand for each potential investment. PCOM’s Executive Committee will serve as the Fund’s Board of Managers and, along with Miller, will make the final determinations on investments.
- The fund is currently seeking investment opportunities. For more information, visit www.pcom.edu or call 678-225-7500.
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