By Fletcher Wilson
What does the Higgs Boson have to do with the Successful Implementation of a Medical Technology?
When the first question made its way down the panel to Brook Byers (of Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers), he momentarily ignored the topic at hand to posit: “In a room full of Biodesign Alumni, my hunch is there are a lot of people in here with an engineering or science background.”
Following some nods throughout the audience, he lurched into what can only be described as a good old-fashioned Higgs Boson joke: “So a Higgs Boson walks into a Catholic Church, and the Priest says, ‘We don’t allow your kind in here!’”
The Five Cardinal Sins of Pitching to Dr. Thomas Fogarty
When Dr. Thomas Fogarty is in the office, he holds meetings all day long. Not unlike the President, he is briefed moments before every meeting. With each new visitor, he brings a fresh enthusiasm to the table, an eagerness to listen and to be impressed. Everybody gets a fair shot, and many are successful—unless, of course, they commit a cardinal sin. Read more
Yea, but what’s the problem? A simple lesson learned from a current fellow
As a current Biodesign fellow, now one-third of the way through the program, I am confident in saying that the most useful lesson learned so far happens to be the simplest of them all…
Now three weeks removed from the program’s flagship clinical immersion and needs finding phase, my team has just finalized a list of 16 clinically observed needs—filtered down from a less manageable 260—which we will use as a medium for learning the rest of the Biodesign process. Around here, this method for systematically identifying, validating, and putting forth a strategy for solving some of today’s unmet clinical needs is simply referred to as “The Process.” The two fellowship teams of four are composed of engineers, physicians, PhD’s and business people. We have all spent the beginnings of our young careers attempting to solve some very difficult problems. Now as fellows, we are given the privilege of trying to do something much tougher, something completely foreign…we are asked to find them. Read more
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