The story below is from our July/August 2025 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!
There is a lot of construction going on at Carilion, but that’s not all that’s new.
Former Carilion President and CEO Nancy Howell Agee put it succinctly when she stressed that all that construction over at the Riverside campus has a very real purpose: “Throughout my career, many times people have had to go elsewhere for care, including my husband. Nobody should have to go elsewhere for care.”
That is a bold pronouncement by a visionary leader, but it is not limited to the construction of buildings. The people in those buildings are already bringing innovation in care, devices, methods and distinct improvement in health care for this region of Virginia. Those people, says Carilion Clinic Innovation (CCI) Director Aileen Helsel, PhD, aren’t all engaged as inventors, physicians or executives. “A lot of what we do is in-house,” she insists. “We don’t have to go outside Carilion for solutions.”
Ryan King, PhD, is Carilion’s Innovation Manager, who says, “Collaboration is one of our values.” He points to the incubator building where medical startup businesses can thrive. There is considerable new product potential being developed. Carilion has 13,000 employees, King points out, “and ideas can come from anywhere. Carilion leans into innovation. … Innovation is what we choose to do. It is not a job description.”
There is a simulation center within the century-old former trolley barn that houses Carilion’s Center for Simulation, Research and Patient Safety. “It is unique,” he says. “It combines all the assets we have.”
Helsel talks of “partnering with startups outside Carilion … giving access to what they need to get to market, figuring out what they need, nurturing the companies.”
Over the last five years, CCI counts 100 invention disclosures, with more than 90 inventors and filed more than 45 patents. Currently, 12 inventions are in active development, with 31 active patents.
One innovation of late is LymphaVibe. The lead inventor of the lymphedema sleeve is Carilion therapist Tara Newberry. She is not normally an inventor, but her therapy work led to the idea. The sleeve can be worn anywhere, and patients hardly notice it is there, says King. Virginia Tech engineering students helped reduce the sleeve’s size, making it more practical.
GO Virginia has approved $14.3 million to support Project VITAL: Virginia Innovations and Technology Advancements in Life Sciences. “That will establish new research cores, expand workforce development programs and create a collaborative network connecting Virginia Tech and other academic institutions with industry partners across the commonwealth’s biotechnology corridor,” says the press release.
This initiative builds upon the state’s $90 million investment in biotechnology advancement, including $27 million for the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at Virginia Tech Carilion to expand clinical research.
Helsel says GO Virginia’s support is being translated into building resources “that guide medical device startups as they navigate federal regulations.” They get help “making it possible to move the devices closer to helping us care for our patients.”
For the third consecutive year, Carilion is on Fortune magazine’s “America’s Most Innovative Companies” list. It is the only Virginia health care system recognized. Helsel says the level of innovation support from Carilion’s executive offices leads other organizations to say, “I wish we could get that.” She smiles as she says, “The people in the C Suite are excited.”
The Roanoke Blacksburg Innovation Alliance (RBIA), an organization focused on growing the region’s technology and biotechnology sectors, “will collaborate with Virginia Tech and Carilion Clinic to lead the regional effort,” says a press release. “Project VITAL will direct $4.9 million to strengthen the region’s position at the forefront of fields such as medical devices, oncology therapeutic research and neurotechnology.
The funding is expected to strengthen the innovation corridor in Southwest Virginia, encouraging biomedical startups to spin off from the university.
Carilion’s $500 million expansion of Roanoke Memorial Hospital includes the 507,000 square foot Crystal Spring Tower, which will house the Cardiovascular Institute and an expanded Emergency Department. Says Dr. Joshua Adams, director of the Carilion Aortic Center, “We can treat patients that have aortic and vascular problems. They used to have to stay in the hospital for one to two weeks and now we can get them out in the same day or usually the day after surgery.”
The new Carilion Taubman Cancer Center being built on the Riverside campus is part of the health care system’s 10-year expansion plan that includes the now completed Carilion Children’s and Carilion Mental Health outpatient centers at Tanglewood Mall. The Riverside campus is dotted with new construction projects, which have erased a considerable amount of parking.
Roanoke Blacksburg Innovation Alliance President Erin Burcham insists the region is focused on building a strong biotech foundation. “Project VITAL will provide emerging companies in this region access to” a variety of advantages, including “advanced lab facilities, shared equipment and specialized programming … talent recruitment, capital attraction, new startup programming, branding for the sector and operations to maximize … economic potential in biosciences.”
Michael Friedlander, vice president for health sciences and technology at Virginia Tech and executive director of the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, says, “It has been gratifying to see the substantial growth and cooperation between diverse organizations that have occurred in [the region] over the last decade in the life and health sciences innovation and commercialization sectors … Project VITAL will leverage all the elements of the biotechnology ecosystem to make the whole so much greater than the sum of its parts.”
“What we have done,” says Helsel, “is a response to the community.”
The story above is from our July/August 2025 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!
