The Rosenman Symposium 2018: Integration of New Technologies

“The way of practicing medicine is not the same anymore.” We heard this theme in various form throughout almost every talk during the 2018 Rosenman Symposium. We are living in an exciting time, where technology is rapidly advancing and innovators are continuously disrupting their fields. Healthcare is not the exception to this trend. At the symposium alone, there were ten start-up companies recognized for their innovative solutions to existing problems. These ranged from addressing the challenge faced by women in maintaining a consistent birth control schedule, to the way orthodontics treatment looks today and its impact on the quality of life of patients.

We heard from Dr. Tejal Desai, a researcher at UCSF who is using her knowledge of micro and nanofabrication techniques to prevent fibrosis and thus induce tissue regeneration in the heart. Additionally, the Director of the Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) at the FDA, spoke on the internal innovation the FDA is going through in order to keep up with that going on in the biomedical field. We learned about the changes they are making to the timeline of the clearance process to make it more fluid and help get products to market in a shorter amount of time.

This change will be of great help to the final stage of the biodesign process, which is integration (Zenios, Makower and Yock 2010). As the word indicates, this is where all of the pieces leading up to a new medical device all come together. The innovator must have a sustainable financial model, operating plan, and staffing plan. Throughout the symposium we learned about how critical each of these steps are and how often this stage is determinant in the success of a company, regardless of how disruptive their technology is. For biotechnology this is even more complex due to additional stakeholders in the healthcare industry. These include government, providers, payers and of course, patients. Speakers throughout the afternoon highlighted the importance of a reimbursement plan when it comes to innovation in medicine and highlighted that communication with payers at an earlier stage could be of great benefit.

At the end of the day, we heard from various stakeholders ranging from investors in large companies to experienced and established entities in the healthcare industry. They talked about the growing trend towards digital medicine and what we could expect to see in the future. Will our visits to the doctor consist of a video chat instead? How will this affect the demand for healthcare providers, and how does this fit in with our current healthcare model? There are many things changing in healthcare, however the intersection of medicine and technology is growing at an astonishing rate and innovation is needed in order to accommodate for this change. Attending the Rosenman Symposium gave BIE the opportunity to hear from those at the forefront of this movement!