Cleveland Clinic is at it again with another commercialization-based collaboration, this time adding Toledo hospital system ProMedica to its Healthcare Innovation Alliance network.

The network was formed last year to help institutions develop and commercialize medical innovations, and The University of Notre Dame, North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System and MedStar Health have all joined in the past year and a half. Through the collaboration, Cleveland Clinic Innovations will help these organizations turn their employees’ ideas into marketable products that will generate revenue, as it does for the Clinic.

ProMedica comprises 11 hospitals and more than 300 facilities with specialties in heart and vascular, oncology, orthopedics, neurology and women’s and pediatric services.

“Innovation is increasingly becoming a critical institutional priority for ProMedica, and we are looking for new ways to engage our physicians and employees in offering them a pathway to turn their ideas into products and services that meet the needs of our communities,” said Dr. Lee Hammerling, ProMedica’s CMO.

The Clinic also recently struck up a commercialization partnership with Ohio State University that was announced last week.

With all of these partnerships, it looks like CCI is off to a good start with Tom Thornton, the controversial former CEO of the Kansas Bioscience Authority who was hired by the clinic last year to manage its research collaboration efforts, including the Innovation Alliance.

And that’s a good thing, as the commercialization arm of the Clinic is on the heels of its best year ever, which saw an $11 million gift and a $78 million exit that generated $28 million for the clinic. It has a number of promising startups but hasn’t made any exits this year.

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