From aerospace to cable TV: How 4 industry outsiders plan to change medicine

Companies like Under Armour and Google are the faces of change in healthcare: high-profile consumer-driven companies stepping into medicine to bring new ideas and products.

But they are just the tip of the spear. Some of the biggest organization you’d rarely associate with medicine – from our space agency to companies best known for truck engine oils – are either spinning off their technologies to create the next medical breakthroughs, or making investments, acquisitions and strategic partnerships.

Here are four good examples of futuristic “healthcare companies,” which outlined their approaches and what they’re hoping to change in the medical industry.

NASA

The space agency has one of the greatest legacies of spinning off research into great innovations – including healthcare. When it comes to medicine today, the organization is focused on developing innovations that help treat crew members in space. For example, there’s keen interest at NASA at addressing issues like bone-density loss and intracranial pressure that can impact vision, said John Sankovic, director of technology incubation and innovation at NASA.

These concepts can turn into the next mainstream medical breakthroughs. For example, NASA is considering the question of how to generate IV fluid in space. “We’re on a three-year mission to MARS and there’s a six-month shelf-life for saline,” Sankovic noted.

The answer to that question could help create new breakthroughs for emergency medicine or rural healthcare.

Cox Communications

America’s third largest cable television provider is in observation mode when it comes to how it can play the best role in healthcare, said Asheesh Saksena, chief strategy officer at Cox Communications. But the company has a mantra: they want to put technology in people’s homes that will capture data and make sense out of it.

That means Cox’s interest is in sectors like telemedicine and home healthcare.

Plus, it’s already done more than observe: it struck a partnership with Cleveland Clinic earlier this year to form Vivre Health. It also made an investment in telehealth company HealthSpot.

“How can we make people manage their health conditions through home?” Saksena said.

Lubrizol

This is a $7 billion company most people know from its oil and fuel additive business. But in recent years it has built out its life science division with a focus on pharmaceutical and medical device innovations.

The company “brings to the table what original equipment manufacturers don’t see,” said Murty Vyakarnam, the company’s global director of R&D. Vyakarnam specifically mentioned post-operative pain management and drug delivery systems as areas of interest (in September, Lubrizol acquired Particle Sciences to expand its pharmaceutical development and drug delivery capabilities).

“These are solutions OEMs weren’t think about or have all the solutions,” he said.

Parker Hannifin

A $13 billion company that supplies parts of aerospace and large industrial machinery, Parker said late last year it was working on 100 different medical advancements: from devices that guide wires through the body to coverings around medical devices to cut the risk of infection.

Parker has had a particular interest in orthopedics. Its latest version of an exoskeleton to help those with spinal cord injuries walk came out this year, and last week it announced a project with the Department of Defense. It has also invested in an orthopedics design company.

Dale Ashby, vice president of technology and innovation at Parker Hannifin, said the company has benefited through constantly interviewing patients.

We hear, ” ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if…’ or ‘I love that medical device, except…’ That’s where we’re excited,” Ashby said.

The executives from the four companies spoke over the weekend at the Cleveland Clinic Medical Innovation Summit.