Beginning in August 2012, the Medical Devices Center Innovation Fellows Program (UMN-IFP) at the University of Minnesota (Minneapolis, MN) and the Peripheral Interventions Division of the Boston Scientific Corporation (BSC) (Maple Grove, MN) embarked on a pilot yearlong journey to explore how industry can engage in an academic environment focusing on medical device innovation. The collaboration was aimed at testing a new model of engaging a strategic partner from the early stages of the innovation process, beginning with clinical needs identification within a focus area congruent to that of the strategic partner's product line(s). This collaboration was only for a portion of the fellows' innovation experience and was directed toward significant exploration of new medical device solutions outside of the BSC projects.
This academia-industry collaboration within the medical device innovation space appears to be the first of its kind. Presented in this abstract is the description of this collaboration as...
