UCC Partners in BioInnovate Ireland
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UCC Partners in BioInnovate Ireland
22.08.2011
BioInnovate Ireland, a specialist training programme in medical device innovation, modeled on Stanford University’s prestigious Biodesign Programme, was officially launched recently at NUI Galway. The BioInnovate Ireland Fellowship Programme has been jointly developed and delivered by a consortium of five Higher Education Institutions which include NUI Galway, University College Cork, University of Limerick, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and Dublin City University. The overall aim of the programme is to train graduates to support the creation of new, cost-effective medical devices that improve patient care through a collaborative approach that focuses on the needs of patients, physicians and the health care industry as a whole.

The impetus for the development of this specialist training programme emerged from the 2010 Innovation Taskforce Report. The new programme aims to hot-house, in the space of 10 months, talented individuals with multidisciplinary backgrounds to explore and develop in teams, opportunities for innovative medical devices.

Programme participants will experience an intensive clinical immersion in teaching hospitals to help identify potential medical device development opportunities. Throughout the 10-month period, they will avail of the expert advice, direction and guidance from dedicated industrial mentors and serial entrepreneurs, along with clinicians with an interest in enhancing patient care through medical device innovation.

In addition to providing training to the BioInnovate Fellows, Research students in the BioInnovate consortium will have access to modules as part of their PhD programmes to broaden their education and expose them to the process of bringing ideas from concept to commercialisation.

This initiative has received funding from Enterprise Ireland and also support from several medical device development and service companies including: Medtronic, Creganna-Tactx Medical, Lake Region Medical Ltd and Steripack, Ltd.

It is envisaged that the BioInnovate Ireland Fellowship Programme will act as a catalyst for enhancing innovation in medical device development within Ireland.

Speaking about the programme, the newly appointed Fellowship Director, NUI Galway’s Dr Mark Bruzzi, said: “Our mission is to educate the next generation of leaders in innovation and to support the future of the medical device technologies sector in Ireland. The academic partners driving the development of the BioInnovate Fellowship Programme are committed to support innovation and entrepreneurship and to evolve the academic component of the Irish Medical Technologies ecosystem to ensure that the needs of the industry are met.”

After an arduous application process, the eight successful applicants in the programme’s inaugural year, have now been split across two teams in Galway and Dublin. Commencing immediately, both teams will work within the clinical area of Cardiology, focussing on interventional and surgical procedures. The group of eight candidates come with a wealth of experience across the disciplines of medicine, engineering, business, law, science and information technology.

The UCC team is co-ordinated by Dr Tanya Mulcahy, College of Science, Engineering and Food Science with Dr Chrys Ngwa (Tyndall National Institute), Dr Liam Marnane (School of Engineering), Professor George Shorten (Head of School of Medicine) and Dr James Harty (Cork University Hospital).

Professor Patrick Fitzpatrick, Head of College of Science, Engineering and Food Science who attended the launch, said ‘The interdisciplinary nature of this elite programme will result in innovative developments in Biomedical Technologies and in advances in the way we education graduates to address industry needs. UCC is looking forwarding to hosting a BioInnovate fellows Team in the future’.

The search for elite candidates for the 2012 cycle of BioInnovate will commence in the Autumn.

Pictured Front row: L-R: Dr Chrys Ngwa, Dr Waqar Aziz, Ms Marie Travers. Dr Tanya Mulcahy, Professor Patrick Fitzpatrick, Mr Colin Forde, Ms Vicky McGrath, Mr Kevin Moore, Dr Liam Mullins, Dr James McGarry, Mr Wayne Allen.

 

 



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