Medical Device Link.

Originally Published MX March/April 2006

BUSINESS PLANNING & TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT

Emory University's Woodruff Health Sciences Center (Atlanta) in January announced that it is establishing the Emory Center for Device Innovation (CDI), a new initiative that will prepare medical technology projects for outside investment, product development, and commercialization.

Emory reports the center will also guide promising projects through the proof-of-concept stage of development, as well as help Emory faculty protect their ideas as patentable intellectual property.

Sherer

"CDI was created as a result of the long-felt need to be able to develop prototype devices in the medical device industry," says Todd Sherer, PhD, director of technology transfer at Emory. "Without the ability to develop critical prototypes of these promising new technologies, the success rate in finding licensing partners is very low. This need has long been overlooked by universities.

"University physicians and surgeons have always been at a disadvantage compared with those doing research at the university, as they have had no funding mechanism or space to develop their ideas," Sherer adds. "CDI will provide space, funding, and expertise that will create a very favorable environment for these underserved inventors."

CDI, in collaboration with the Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory, will initially focus on one area of Emory's historic strength in medical technology: cardiac and vascular devices and therapeutics. The center will later expand into other clinical specialties.

Emory's office of technology transfer, a partner in CDI, will be responsible for handling new inventions that are submitted to the center for further development, Sherer says. CDI's advisory board members will assist in evaluating new disclosures and providing insight for prototype development. The board will also assist in making contacts and facilitating licensing opportunities.

According to Sherer, companies developing technology in areas relevant to CDI will be targeted by the university as potential business partners. "However, there is no reason to leave this to chance, as contacts can be made through the director of CDI or the director of technology transfer," Sherer says.

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