Date: Wednesday, 28th June; Afternoon (Workshop FULL)

Workshop Aims

The workshop will be a series of personal narratives by researchers who have taken their work from the lab bench to at least human trials if not commercialization. The goal is to fill the gap left by the many commercialization boot camps that are typically staffed by those who have not gone through the process themselves. Instead, the attendee will hear the actual stories of those who have found a path to human testing for their surgical, rehabilitation and prosthetic robots or other medical devices.

Topics to be covered

In telling their stories, the speakers will address the following questions:

  • Who and what does it take to pull it off?
  • What resources are needed from one’s institution?
  • What sacrifices are needed? Neglecting the rest of one’s research program?
  • What are the appropriate potential roles for the researcher?
  • How much luck is involved?
  • Did it come down to connections?
  • Are there successful models or patterns to emulate?

Organisers

  • Pierre Dupont, Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School
  • Russell Taylor, Johns Hopkins University
  • Christos Bergeles, University College London

Schedule

14:00 First in Human: First for Howie
  Howie Choset, Carnegie Mellon University / MedRobotics, USA
14:30 The World’s First Robot-Assisted Eye Surgery
  Gerrit Naus, PrecEyes, The Netherlands
15:00 The Robodoc Experience: Lab Prototype to Commercial Product – Or How I Spent 7 Years with Little Sleep and No Social Life
  Peter Kazanzides, Johns Hopkins University / Robodoc, USA
15:30 Tea and Coffee Break
16:00 The Long and Winding Road to the Bionic Pancreas
  Ed Damiano, Boston University / BetaBionics, USA
16:30 How Academic Research can Best Use Medical Device Engineering Firms
  Derek Henderson, Cambridge Consultants, UK
17:00 A Rollercoaster Ride (and it’s not over)
  Bradley Nelson, ETH Zurich / Aeon Scientific, Switzerland
17:30 Closing remarks 

Location

Royal Geographical Society, 
1 Kensington Gore, 
London, 
SW7 2AR
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