Success in Academic Surgery: Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Mark S. Cohen, MD, FACS is Professor of Surgery and Pharmacology at the University of Michigan. Serving as Associate Chair for Innovation and Entrepreneurship for the Department of Surgery, as Director for the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Path of Excellence at the University of Michigan Medical School, and as Innovation Chief for the University of Michigan Rogel Comprehensive Cancer Center, he has helped develop new innovation curricula across all vertical levels of learners from senior faculty all the way to undergraduate and graduate students and medical students leading to several new start-ups, licenses, and patents as well as a $3M Surgical Innovation Prize Fund which he directs at the University. He is a serial entrepreneur cofounding startups in therapeutics, devices and digital health. He completed surgical residency at Washington University and a NIH T32-sponsored fellowship in Endocrine and Oncologic Surgery at Washington University. As a practicing Surgical Oncologist and Endocrine Surgeon, he clinical interests are focused in the care of patients with advanced melanomas and endocrine tumors. His translational research program has been funded through 3 NIH R01 research grants along with support from the Komen Foundation, the American Cancer Society, and the Department of Surgery. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed scientific manuscripts, 10 book chapters, and serves as an Associate Editor for the journal SURGERY for its INNOVATION series. He has also served multiple leadership roles in the Association for Academic Surgery, the Society of University Surgeons, and the American Association for Endocrine Surgeons, and has served as a grant review panelist for the National Science Foundation and NIH's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) phase I and phase II award programs..

1. Developing a Surgical Innovation: Creating a Meaningful Value Proposition and a Compelling Pitch for Impact.- 2. Understanding the Impact of Your Innovation: Customer Discovery  .- 3. Intellectual Property, Patents, and Conflicts of Interest.- 4. Navigating the Regulatory Process.- 5. Getting Funding for a Surgical Innovation: Opportunities and Challenges.- 6. Industry-Academic Partnerships in Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Where is the Pendulum Swinging?.- 7. The Biodesign Model : Training Surgeon Innovators and Entrepreneurs.- 8. The Shared Investment Model: Partnering a Venture Capital Fund with a Department of Surgery/Health System.- 9. Creating an Innovation Center for Surgical Devices at an Academic Medical Center .- 10. Leveraging Multiple Schools into a Multidisciplinary I&E Program at an Academic Medical Center.- 11. Improving Industry-Academic Engagement Through Development of a Surgery Department Contract Research Organization.- 12. Funding Engineering/SurgicalPartnerships to Accelerate Commercialization of Institutional Surgical Innovations: The Coulter Model.- 13. Creating a Multidisciplinary Surgical Innovations Group at an Academic Cedical Center to Stimulate Surgery Faculty Technology Development.- 14. Engaging SBIR funding for development of Surgical Innovations Coming Out of Academia.- 15. The Partners Fund Model for Accelerating Surgical Innovations.- 16. Training the Next Generation of Surgical Innovators and Entrepreneurs Through a Novel Innovation Pathway and Curriculum.

"Book has a broad target audience, ranging from residents to fellows to faculty surgeons. The book meets the needs of the intended audience nicely by creating a framework for innovative work to progress. ... This a high-quality book that draws from many different areas to provide a centralized resource for understanding and improving surgical innovation. ... It compares well to its counterpart books that examine different aspects of a successful academic surgical career for those interested in innovation and entrepreneurship." (Kelsey Elyce Koch, Doody's Book Reviews, December 7, 2019)

“Book has a broad target audience, ranging from residents to fellows to faculty surgeons. The book meets the needs of the intended audience nicely by creating a framework for innovative work to progress. … This a high-quality book that draws from many different areas to provide a centralized resource for understanding and improving surgical innovation. … It compares well to its counterpart books that examine different aspects of a successful academic surgical career for those interested in innovation and entrepreneurship.” (Kelsey Elyce Koch, Doody's Book Reviews, December 7, 2019)