By Business & Finance 
North American healthcare leaders look to Ireland to co-develop future healthcare solutions
Enterprise Ireland hosted 15 leading and world renowned healthcare providers from the USA and Canada at the inaugural North America Healthcare Forum in the Aviva Stadium, where industry leaders met with over 100 Irish companies operating in the healthcare solutions sector. The forum provides Irish companies a unique opportunity to learn from key decisionmakers at the highest level of US and Canadian healthcare and further position Ireland as a world class source of innovative healthcare solutions.
At the North America Healthcare Summit, three Enterprise Ireland client companies Kite Medical, Meditec Medical and RelateCare announced major new deals with Northwell Health (New York) and Lahey Hospital Medical Centre (Massachusetts) with a cumulative value of over €500,000. Northwell Health is one of the leading healthcare providers on the east coast of the US, comprising 21 hospitals, 61,000 employees and nearly 14,000 affiliated physicians, providing healthcare to over 4 million people.
Irish healthcare companies exports total over €1.7 billion to North America
With the US projected to spend $3.5 trillion on healthcare in 2018 and Canada spending $242 billion in 2017, the North American market is a hugely important export market for Irish healthcare companies. Within the lifesciences cluster, Enterprise Ireland has over 200 exporting client companies, employing over 9,000 people with combined exports of over €1.7 billion.
Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation Heather Humphreys TD said:“The North America Healthcare Forum further confirms Ireland’s status as a global leader in healthcare. Ongoing collaboration and engagement with some of the world’s foremost healthcare providers gives Irish companies the opportunity to drive exports and employment and also to contribute to the health of the patient populations around the world. The Government, through Enterprise Ireland, will continue to grow this collaboration for the benefit of all parties.”
Enterprise Ireland opening doors in North America to medtech companies
Deirdre Glenn, Director, Lifesciences Sector, Enterprise Ireland said:
Through our expertise and overseas network, Enterprise Ireland is identifying opportunities for client companies in North America. Our focus is also to work with companies to drive their innovation and competitiveness and create companies of scale at an international level. Innovation is a key differentiator in achieving competitive advantage in North America.
Commercialising medical technologies to enhance capabilities
“Through our partnership with Enterprise Ireland, we have been able to pursue relationships with innovative Irish companies such as Salaso, Technopath and i360, and we’re now exploring a relationship with Kite Meditec and Meditec Medical,” said Michael Dowling, President and CEO, Northwell Health. He continued:
What makes these collaborations especially fruitful is that we’ll be able to commercialise these medical technologies to enhance the capabilities of other American health care providers. Ireland is a world-class source of innovative health care solutions and this event is of extreme importance to both stakeholders. It provides a platform to vocalise the challenges within the North American health care system with a view to working with Irish healthcare companies to identify future solutions.
