The Center for Biomedical and Interventional Technology (CBIT), YCCI’s newest emerging core, recently hosted Clinician Pitch Night at the School of Management (SOM). The event was aimed at stimulating the kind of interdisciplinary collaboration that is the hallmark of CBIT activities.
CBIT is focused on combining unmet clinical needs with business analysis and technology development with the goal of catalyzing the implementation and commercialization of biomedical innovations. Bringing together such varied expertise to solve clinical problems holds enormous promise in terms of benefiting patients.
Approximately 80 students from SOM, the School of Medicine, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and Yale College gathered to listen to pitches by clinicians on potential solutions to clinical problems that are more efficient, more cost effective and result in an improved patient experience. The physicians had five minutes to present their ideas, which are in need of engineering design, market research and business analysis in order to further develop them. The proposals included:
• A safer, more reliable “smart shunt” for patients with hydrocephalus that would be a vast improvement over the shunts currently in use. (Dr. Ryan Grant)
• A less painful, faster, simpler, and cheaper method of performing bone marrow biopsies for bone marrow donors and patients with blood cancer. (Dr. Elliott Brown)
• A novel device for treating patients with sleep apnea, which affects 1 in 10 people during their lifetime and can lead to a loss of productivity and neurocognitive function, as well as a host of diseases. (Dr. Andrey Zinchuk)
• A better retractor for open-heart pediatric cardiothoracic surgery that would allow adequate exposure in mini-sternotomy. (Dr. Mohsen Karimi)
• A system for reducing disparity in pediatric acute care to help connect community hospitals with pediatric providers. (Dr. Marc Auerbach)
These and other promising projects may be eligible for pilot funding under a new mechanism created by YCCI and CBIT. The program allows for $1,500 for Stage 1 proposals, followed by up to $50,000 for Stage 2 proposals. This support is for product focused proposals and can be used to pay for prototype activity, animal and clinical evaluation, and creation of a strong business strategy. The pre-application deadline is December 12, 2014. For more information visit http://ycci.yale.edu/index.aspx.
Management, natural science, engineering, and medical students who want to explore establishing science-related ventures may be interested in MGT 657, NewVentures in Healthcare and the Life Sciences. This spring semester course offers a broad understanding of commercial opportunities in healthcare and medicine, including healthcare delivery, healthcare IT, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, medical devices and surgical techniques.