Technology has always been about making lives better, and the medical field is a prime example of how technological advancements can accomplish that goal.

The sixth-annual ProMedica Innovations Summit on Thursday highlighted some of the latest developments impacting health care. More than 5,000 attendees were registered for the event at the Renaissance Toledo Downtown Hotel.

“We’re demonstrating brand new life-science technologies to help our patients in the ProMedica system,” Dr. John Pigott, chief innovations officer for ProMedica Innovations, said. “Technology is very difficult to keep up with. That body of knowledge just keeps accelerating, and that’s why ProMedica and the leadership sought the Innovations support to look after technologies and to integrate those into our health-care system.”

ProMedica Innovations has its own venture fund and manages the state-matched Northwest Ohio Tech Fund II. It invests in startups developing technologies for the medical field.

“One of the great things is that we at Innovations have brought over $50 million of outside venture capital to startups within the community over the last six years,” Justin Hammerling, associate vice president of ProMedica Innovations, said.

One of its recent investments was in MediView XR, which is developing a holographic, three-dimensional guidance and navigation system for use in surgery for cancerous tumor ablations and biopsies. Sylvania native Jeff Yanof is the co-inventor of the device with Karl West, both biomedical engineers at the Lerner Research Institute of the Cleveland Clinic.

The system, which is undergoing clinical evaluations for tumor ablation, uses a combination of existing technologies and a HoloLens headset to display a patient-specific 3-D model of internal structures during minimally invasive procedures.

“We’re also tracking the tools, like a mini GPS system,” Mr. Yanof said. “So we can show three-dimensional relationships between the tools and the imaging altogether. The three-dimensional perception and spatial understanding helps not only target and treat the tissue, but avoid other critical structures like blood vessels.”

Surgeons currently use two-dimensional fluoroscopy that doesn’t provide a complete picture. The augmented-reality device has been used on nine patients so far in a 14-patient clinical evaluation in Cleveland. It could be available commercially in a couple of years.

“The evaluation has gone very well in the sense that it looks like it’s going to be very useful technology for these procedures and a wide range of other minimally invasive procedures,” Mr. Yanof said. “We’re looking at many other applications and we believe there will be value for a broad range of applications.”

Another exhibitor, Ekso Bionics, displayed its robotic exoskeletons, including the EksoNR that helps paralyzed patients walk. ProMedica has two of the devices currently in use for its patients. For now, the device is approved only for use in indoor clinical settings.

Jim Gratton with Ekso Bionics had a spinal stroke in 2013 and became paralyzed below the waist. He began using the EksoNR in 2015 and demonstrated it at the summit.

“The robotic suit has sensors throughout the suit so as I’m walking, it’s sensing my weight shift,” Mr. Gratton said.

The suit can also read how much effort the patient is exerting versus how much it is assisting. As a person’s ability changes, the suit can be reprogrammed.

Mr. Gratton said he has seen notable improvement in both the range of motion and strength in his legs from using the EksoNR. He wants to one day be able to walk again on his own.

“I’m hoping to walk out of the suit,” he said.

First Published November 7, 2019, 10:46 p.m.