Do you know how the founders of the Stanford Biodesign Innovation Fellowship met?

Below is the story of how the founders of the Biodesign Program, Josh Makower, MD and Paul Yock, MD met:

Josh and Paul were introduced by Steve Oesterle in 1997 while Josh was the CEO of Transvascular. This fortuitous meeting came about because Steve thought IVUS might be a good technology to identify the location of the target for Transvascular’s coronary bypass technology.  Paul, being the inventor of IVUS, teamed up with Josh to help as an advisor to Transvascular.  In 1999, when Josh transitioned to the CTO of Transvascular, Paul mentioned to him the need to find a focus for the medical device industry at Stanford. From this conversation, Josh realized that his experience at Pfresh Tech could serve as a model for a fellowship and the two set to work as a team. The rest is history.

One interesting note is that the vast majority of financial support for the Biodesign Fellowship is received from sources outside of Stanford. It is our hope someday that the good fortune our fellows and students gain through their great work after Biodesign will allow them to help support Biodesign as they become the teachers and leaders for the next generation.