Originally Published MDDI June 2004

Cover

Close-Up: Industry Innovators

Joseph Chang
Consultant

What inspired your best work as an innovator?

I am most inspired by the hope of making healthcare delivery safer and more effective, while reducing the overall cost.

What was the biggest hurdle you faced in developing a product?

The biggest hurdle is a project that has progressed into the design control stage before key project assumptions about the concept and feasibility have been resolved. 

What is the one piece of advice you’d give to would-be innovators?

Complete a concept and feasibility study to address the risks and costs. Don’t get into design control until you have all of the fundamentals. It is all right to take some calculated risks and make some conceptual changes but make sure that those risks are worth the benefits and that the changes are manageable. 

Gerald Loeb
USC

What inspired your best work as an innovator?

Stepping back from the problem to consider the larger objectives and underlying scientific principles that govern the feasibility of alternative approaches.

What was the biggest hurdle you faced in developing a product?

The inherent conservatism of the whole process. The patients, on the other hand, are enthusiastic research partners with indispensable input.

What is the one piece of advice you’d give to would-be innovators?

The difficult part is that the most important innovations tend to look unproductive for a long time, during which you have to invest yourself in them while everyone else questions your sanity. That is where a solid understanding of the fundamentals is crucial.

Victor L. Poirier
Thoratec Corp.

What inspired your best work as an innovator?

My best work as an innovator was the development and commercialization of the HeartMate blood pump. The overriding factor that drove me to accomplish this was my burning desire to help patients who were facing death with no hope of survival. This took devotion, persistence, hard work, and lots of luck.

What was the biggest hurdle you face in developing a product?

The biggest hurdle was to overcome society’s negativity and skepticism. This is true on a technical front as well as in the financial, regulatory, and medical communities.

What is the one piece of advice you would give to would-be innovators?

Surround yourself with people that are smarter than you, listen to them, and provide them with the direction to meet your goals. Instill the passion, the challenge, and provide the motivation. Be persistent, work hard, and hope you are lucky. As a greater man than I once said, “The harder I work, the luckier I get.”


Thomas J. Shaw
Retractable Technologies Inc

What inspired your best work as an innovator?

I saw a news segment about a doctor who had accidentally contracted HIV from a contaminated needle. The doctor blamed design engineers for not making syringes that prevent such injuries. I decided to do my best to fix the problem.

What is the biggest hurdle you faced in developing a product?

The biggest problem I had to overcome was to avoid being discouraged by pseudo-experts who said it couldn’t be done. A monopolist will do everything to discourage innovation because new products bring new competition and threaten investments in the existing tooling .

What is the one piece of advice you’d give to would-be innovators?
I would advise any would-be innovator to be wary when developing technology for an already monopolized market. Anyone who tells you that you do not have the right to show and market your products should be questioned about his motives and his relationship to the existing 
market shareholder.

Copyright ©2004 Medical Device & Diagnostic Industry