A Tech Transfer Sandbox for Device Companies

Though the very basis of the biotech industry, university technology transfer in medical devices has largely been ignored. That's because the method by which most device innovations are developed differs markedly from the way most biotechnology advances come about. New drugs come from extensive laboratory testing; device designs frequently result from sudden realizations by practicing physicians as to how to perform a procedure in a different way, requiring a new tool.

Stanford University is looking to take medical devices out of the tech transfer backwater through the launch of the Medical Device Network (MDN), designed to stimulate product innovation. Stanford is a logical place for such an effort: its faculty and students have played a major role in the burgeoning device industry concentrated in the San Francisco Bay area, with a hand in companies such as Heartport Inc. , Advanced Cardiovascular Systems Inc. (now a division of Guidant Corp. ) and Arterial Vascular Engineering Inc. (acquired in 1998 by Medtronic Inc