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Wearable health devices such as Fitbit and Withings are getting lots of buzz, but a Woodridge-based company is betting that implantables will really save lives. Endotronix Inc. developed a wireless sensor that measures pulmonary artery pressure from within the heart. The patient holds up a device about the size of an iPad Mini to his or her chest for about 15 seconds; the device measures the pressure and sends the information to the person's health care provider.

SPR Therapeutics, a Highland Hills-based medical device company, is one step closer to bringing relief to people who suffer from chronic shoulder pain following a stroke. The company is the recipient of a $2.9 million Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Institutes of Health. The award – the company's third from NIH - will help fund a year-long clinical trial underway for the Smartpatch peripheral nerve stimulation system, for the treatment of post-stroke shoulder pain.

For initial funding, Lix put his name in the running for a $25,000 grant from the Lorain County Community College Innovation Fund, a pre-seed funding program that uses government and private funding to support early-stage, technology-based businesses. The grant made it possible for Lix to relocate to a laboratory housed at a manufacturing incubator, a move that not only gave him a controlled testing environment, but also provided access to in-house engineers whose expertise he could use.

The Blackstone LaunchPad is a national model for fostering entrepreneurship through higher education. It encourages entrepreneurial thinking and activity among undergraduate and graduate students, as well as faculty and alumni for the purpose of incubating a new generation of entrepreneurs. The first LaunchPad debuted at the University of Miami, and it has now spread to other campuses including Case Western Reserve University, Baldwin Wallace, Kent State University and Lorain County Community College.

An Office of Community Technology Transfer being piloted at Lorain County Community College in northeast Ohio was specifically created to fill the invention gap between research institutions and the greater community.