On May 2, 2017, the University of Pennsylvania will celebrate the launch of the Penn Center for Health, Devices and Technology, or Penn Health-Tech, a University-wide effort to advance Penn’s world-class breakthroughs into new devices and health technologies to meet the world’s most pressing health care needs. Marking the opening of the Center, the University will host the first in a series of regular symposia.  

Penn Health-Tech was established by the Perelman School of Medicine, the School of Engineering and Applied Science and the Office of the Vice Provost of Research. It is sponsored in part by a generous gift from Penn alum Jonathan Brassington, whose passion to encourage interdisciplinary investigative projects sparked its creation. Serving the local rich ecosystem of institutes and centers, Penn Health-Tech will expand Penn’s biomedical technology pipeline. Its mission is to focus on the intersection of physical devices and information systems that translate to innovative health care technologies.  It will serve as an important link to regional partners such as the health systems at Penn and The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

“Pioneering research at Penn Medicine and Penn Engineering places Penn at the forefront of the biomedical revolution,” said Penn’s Vice Provost for Research Dawn Bonnell. “The new Penn Center for Health, Devices and Technology is designed to extend Penn’s leadership by providing resources to investigators with a focus on biomedical devices.”

“Penn scientists and physicians are defining the future of medicine in the development of new diagnostics and therapies,” said J. Larry Jameson, executive vice president of the University for the Health System and dean of the Perelman School of Medicine. “Establishment of the Penn Center for Health, Devices and Technology will accelerate our efforts in the biomedical device domain.”

Vijay Kumar, Nemirovsky Family Dean in Penn’s School of Engineering, said, “The Center is an exciting opportunity for Penn Engineering to partner with Penn Medicine to develop novel biomedical devices. Penn’s leadership in cyber-physical systems, nanotechnology and other areas offers untapped potential for innovation at the forefront of this field.”

The Penn Center for Health, Devices and Technology will be co-directed by Brian Litt, professor of neurology, neurosurgery and bioengineering in the Perelman School of Medicine, and Insup Lee, the Cecilia Fitler Moore Professor in Penn Engineering’s Department of Computer and Information Science. The Center will also be supported by Mark Turco, Penn Center for Innovation’s chief innovation and corporate outreach officer.

As part of the launch event, the new Penn Center will announce a competition offering $300k in seed funds to be competitively awarded at a second symposium to be held in the fall. The inaugural Penn Health-Tech symposium will take place from 11:30 a.m.-7 p.m. on May 2, in the Arthur H. Rubenstein Auditorium in the Smilow Center for Translational Research at the University of Pennsylvania, 3400 Civic Center Blvd.

A national launch is planned for the fall.

More information about the symposium and Penn Health-Tech is available at healthtech.upenn.edu.