Healthcare company-building profile
Fast Forward Medical Innovation (FFMI)
Michigan Medicine (University of Michigan)
Source-based profile
Program at a Glance
- Program type
- Accelerator
- Program category
- Health system accelerator
- Organization
- Michigan Medicine (University of Michigan)
- Organization type
- Hospital or health system
- Location
- Ann Arbor, Michigan
- Company stage served
- Research or idea stage
- Cohort or participation model
- Not publicly documented
- Investment or funding offered
- Not publicly documented
- Published investment terms
- Not publicly documented
- Equity or fee model
- Not publicly documented
- Clinical or hospital connection
- Yes
- Application status
- Active
Public description
About the program
Fast Forward Medical Innovation is the University of Michigan Medical School's biomedical commercialization unit, describing itself as "a front door to biomedical commercialization at the University of Michigan." It is organized around three divisions: Business Development, Commercialization Education, and the Michigan Biomedical Venture Fund, and it serves faculty researchers, clinicians, students, and outside industry partners working on medical devices, diagnostics, therapeutics, digital health, and research tools. Its flagship education offering, FFMI fastPACE, is a virtual project-based course that walks teams through customer discovery and the path to launching a medical product, and it also runs intellectual property education, an Innovation Studio, and disease-specific innovation programs at the Frankel Cardiovascular Center and the Rogel Cancer Center. FFMI engages outside companies through industry alliance managers and sponsored research and licensing partnerships brokered with U-M Innovation Partnerships. The Michigan Biomedical Venture Fund invests directly in startup companies built on University of Michigan licensed intellectual property, giving external investors a co-investment entry point.
What the program publicly emphasizes
Focus areas and features
- Category: Health system accelerator
Publicly documented people and network
Program leadership and alumni
- Program leader
- Mike Ranella — FFMI Interim Co-Director and Senior Director, Business Development (co-leads with Jon Servoss, EdD, FFMI Interim Co-Director and Director of Education)
- Notable alumni named in public materials
- Michigan Biomedical Venture Fund has invested in 21 companies to date; MBVF portfolio companies have raised more than $350M+ in total downstream investment; over $40 in downstream investment for every $1 of early MBVF funding; portfolio company Parabricks acquired by NVIDIA; portfolio company HistoSonics received FDA approval for its liver tumor histotripsy device in 2023; other named portfolio companies include Endovascular Engineering, ONL Therapeutics, Intero Biosystems and EVOQ Therapeutics; 2025 metrics: 918 participants in commercialization education programs; $147M in industry research awards; 286 invention reports filed; $350M+ in follow-on investment across 21 portfolio startups; operates the Michigan Biomedical Venture Fund investing in startups with U-M licensed IP
Sources
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