Advancing Laboratory Medicine through Innovation: A Tale of Six Inventors

In a recent issue of Science Translational Medicine (1), Yock and colleagues of Stanford University discuss the merits and challenges of developing a discipline of medical technology innovation. Innovation is defined as “inventiveness put to use”; a discovery that results in a commercial product or service. In this provocative article, the authors discuss two main streams of educational theory and practice that together form the basis for teaching innovation: design thinking and entrepreneurship education (Fig. 1). Design thinking focuses on identifying the opportunity and need, developing the idea to solve the problem, building the prototype, and testing the product, while entrepreneurship education provides an introduction to the skills and approaches required to take a product or a service and successfully commercialize it. The authors argue that medical technology innovation is the ideal environment for interdisciplinary team building combining physicians, engineers, scientists, and business professionals.Fig. 1. Components of innovation as suggested in a recent review on biomedical technology innovation as a discipline [Yock et al. (1)]. Design thinking encompasses the creative roadmap toward innovation, including awareness of the opportunity or unsolved problem, an idea to fill the opportunity, development work to design and prototype the solution, and experimental testing as a reality check. Multiple cycles of ideas, prototyping, and testing may be required before a viable product emerges. Entrepreneurship assesses the feasibility of commercializing the product, including components of uniqueness (intellectual property) and market potential. Regulatory requirements and business strategy often suggest outcomes that may include in-house manufacturing, licensing, mergers/acquisitions, or an initial public offering (IPA).In laboratory medicine, numerous scientists and physicians have been able to successfully launch their inventions into the marketplace; inventions that changed the practice of medicine. Six of those inventors were invited to share their success stories with the readers of Clinical Chemistry. How did they do it? What influenced most their success? What were the major drivers for their pursuits? Did they have formal training in …