The Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania recently launched the Ben Franklin Life Science Technology Network to increase awareness of companies and people in northeastern Pennsylvania’s health care system.
It also aims to increase communication among the system.
Ben Franklin serves 125 firms and organizations and 200 individuals in 21 counties that would be part of the free network.
The network will allow interns and graduates in healthcare-related industries to find educational experiences and employment; facilitate the ability to research, develop, and commercialize new products for the health care industry; introduce startups and developers of new technologies to health care industry providers as customers and investors; and provide opportunities for health care industry professionals to collaborate with colleges and researchers to deliver new health care techniques and develop direct and indirect technologies.
Ben Franklin envisions the network as a system of concentric rings. Patients are at the center of the rings, and they are surrounded by three industry rings: care providers, those who are product or service suppliers to care providers, and researchers, manufacturers, and others who provide critical inputs to those suppliers.
In northeastern PA, there are 165,000 healthcare workers, 56 hospitals, eight psychiatric hospitals, five rehabilitation hospitals, one Veterans Administration hospital, and multiple independent facilities.