Author: Fedor Kossakovski

NEW YORK – May 28, 2024 – DaVinci Education and Elentra, both pioneers in healthcare education technology, today announced their strategic merger under the portfolio of Achieve Partners. This exciting development is strengthened by the appointment of JD White, Ph.D., as the new CEO of the combined entity, set to lead a transformation in healthcare education.

From its origins at Duke University, DaVinci Education has been a vanguard in medical education for over a decade. “Now is the time to take this quantum leap with our colleagues at Elentra and begin to build connected solutions and services to help educate our future healthcare professionals,” says DaVinci Education CEO and co-founder, Allison Wood.

“DaVinci Education started as a collaboration among forward-looking administrators and educators,” said Robin Rasor, Associate VP at Duke’s Office for Translation & Commercialization. “We are thrilled to see Duke’s impact on medical education continue to spread through this combination.”

COLUMBUS, Ga., Sept. 12, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Aspirion, a leading technology-enabled healthcare revenue cycle management (“RCM”) provider for complex claims and revenue integrity, announced today the acquisition of Infinia ML, Inc. (“Infinia ML”), a leading Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning company. The acquisition of Infinia ML accelerates Aspirion’s investment in cutting-edge intelligent automation to advance operational effectiveness, recovery yield, and pace of collections for its healthcare provider clients. Infinia ML will operate as Aspirion’s research and development engine focusing on leap-ahead AI capabilities to drive improved financial performance for healthcare providers across the nation.

“Our focus on innovation is key to Aspirion’s ability to maximize collections and accelerate revenue recovery for our healthcare system and hospital partners’ most challenging receivables. Innovation is core to our organizational structure and culture, from our highly skilled team to our best-in-class workflows powered by our proprietary Compass platform,” said Amy Amick, CEO of Aspirion. “Infinia ML brings the preeminent team of data scientists, strategists, and technologists with extensive AI capabilities and a scalable technology platform with a proven track record of success. Combining Infinia ML’s expertise with Aspirion’s deep RCM experience and market reach, we are uniquely positioned to further elevate revenue cycle performance for our client partners. Our investments to date in AI, machine learning, and robotic process automation have yielded strong value for our clients. The acquisition of Infinia ML builds upon this foundation.”

At the Duke University Office for Translation & Commercialization (OTC), the team is working to bring technologies out of the university and into reality – be it through traditional patenting and licensing pathways or through start-up creation with Duke New Ventures (DNV) and investing with Duke Capital Partners (DCP).

But behind each technology is an innovator with a vision, and so much of the commercialization journey is not just developing the invention but nurturing the entrepreneurial talent of Duke employees.

Demonstrating a commitment to talent development, OTC runs several student and trainee programs: OTC Fellows help evaluate and market technologies, New Venture Fellows help develop business plans for potential start-ups, and DCP Associates help screen and conduct diligence on investment opportunities.

“I don’t want to say life-changing, but pretty close to it.”

That was Shamitha Shetty’s takeaway from the inaugural Triangle Universities Startup Workshop, held in mid-May. Shetty, a Ph.D. student in the Duke University Department of Biomedical Engineering, was beaming at the reception concluding the three-day intensive course, mulling over all the guidance she received on how to take her immunotherapy platform technology out of the lab and, hopefully, into a startup.

“I feel like now I’m going back with an action plan of the things that I need to do,” team lead Shetty said.

“This workshop was a great opportunity to bring the three universities together for an impactful event. Given the number of postdocs and graduate students here, it’s exciting to know we’re guiding and inspiring the next generation of biotech entrepreneurs to commercialize university innovations. So I’m really encouraged,” said organizer Don Rose, Entrepreneur-in-Residence of Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. and Alexandria Venture Investments, which supported and participated in many of the sessions. The event was hosted at the Apella by Alexandria event space on the Alexandria Center^® for Advanced Technologies mega campus in Research Triangle Park.

As part of the celebrations for the Duke University Centennial this year, the Office for Translation & Commercialization is excited to highlight the impact Duke innovations, partners, and startups have had on society at large with a physical and digital Centennial timeline exhibit: A Century of Innovation at Duke University.

The physical installation is making its public debut right now at Research & Innovation Week, first at Penn Pavilion and then at the Trent Semans Center.

Duke University is well known for its research – what might be less well known is how this intellectual property gets out into the real world.

Multiple therapeutics are currently FDA-approved and changing people’s lives, including severe gout treatment Krystexxa (Professor of Medicine Michael Hershfield and Research Analyst Susan J. Kelly) and Pompe disease therapy Myozyme (Professors of Pediatrics Y. T. Chen and Priya Kishnani).