So Wassup Doc?

Physician Entrepreneurs are creating great products and services.

Physician entrepreneurs continue to innovate their way out of the healthcare mess. They are not just commercializing drug, devices and diagnostics, but healthcare IT apps and platforms, creative new business models and scalable practice ideas.

It's been a while, so here's what's going on at the Society of Physician Entrpreneurs, a not-for-profit global biomedical collaborative online innovation network that you can join for FREE and participate in our linkedin group.

1.  We are now approaching 850 global members consisting of healthcare entrepreneurs, investors, service providers and industry reps

2.  We are about to roll out a new website with much improved user benefits and services

3.  We are creating global chapters, including Washington DC and Denver

4.  We are collaborating with several top-rated business schools to offer easy to access, affordable bioentrepreneurship education to our members

5. We are brainstorming our next international meeting

6. We have created an Innovation Scholars program for residents, fellows and faculty who are interested in working in a biomedical company for six months as a paid employee.

The time is right for healthcare entrepreneurs to embrace the radical change taking place around the world and emerge with new solutions for patients. Please join us at www.sopenet.org and linkedin.

What With All You ER Docs Starting Things?

Everywhere I look, there's another ER application.

When I'm at a cocktail party, one of the questions I get asked the most is , "What made you become an ENT doctor?" My thought is that medical students make their career decisions based on a lot of factors, but perhaps the one that stands out the most is the "personality" of the specialty they choose.  Take the following quiz by matching the word with the specialty:

A. Jock                                            A. Cardiothoracic surgeon

B. God                                            B. Psychiatrist

C. Looking for answers                  C. ENT doc

D. Geeky gadgeteer                       D. Orthopod

E. Life Styler                                   E. Emergency Medicine Specialist

One of the great things about working with SoPE (http://www.sopenet.org) is I get to hear about a lot of great innovative ideas. Lately, it seems, I've met more ER docs with great ideas than I can recall.

One , www.scribesstat.com, assigns pre-med scribes to ER docs to enter data into the EMR, thus making them more efficient.  Another, www.itriage.com, is a mobile health triage app that directs patients to the right place at the right time, and even gives you wait times in the ER or ambulatory facility you choose. Another ER doc wants to revisit an old infatuation with marine biology and commercialize products that come from the sea. As we all know by now, Bledsoe created this website and runs medical conferences looking for polar bears in Canada.

What's with these people? Can any of you out there help me understand this?

I think the rest of us can learn a lot from these life-stylers. Give yourself a present if you got that answer right.

The Anatomy & Physiology Of Bioentrepreneurship

Free education resources for physician bioentrepreneurs.

Measuring competencies of professionals , particularly doctors, has undergone significant change in the last few years. For example, The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education has formulated competency based education guidelines for graduate medical education that includes the three elements of structure (anatomy), process (physiology) and outcomes. Residency training programs and their directors are now being held accountable for measuring competencies of trainees and graduates in the areas of 1) medical knowledge, 2) patient care, 3) practice based learning and improvement, 4) systems-based practice, 5) professionalism, and 6) interpersonal and communications skills.

Suppose we were to apply a similar thinking to how we train bioentrepreneurs? In an article we published in 2008 (JOURNAL OF COMMERCIAL BIOTECHNOLOGY. VOL 14. NO 1. 2–12 JANUARY 2008) my co-author Patrick Hurley and I reported an overview of bioentrepreneurship education programs in the US and proposed some core learning objectives for those completing bioentrepreneurship education programs. Not unlike the ACGME guidelines, we tried to identify learning objectives related to some general competencies, suggested ways to use increasingly more dependable methods of assessing graduate’s attainment of thesecompetencies throughout their program, and recommended we begin to use outcome data to facilitate continuous improvement of programs.

Furthermore, we proposed core learning objectives that would drive curriculum development and standardization. Since bioentrepreneurship requires an extensive repertoire of knowledge, skills and attitudes, we proposed that bioentrepreneurs should demonstrate a defined set of abilities in the areas of legal environment, marketing, finance, leadership and organizational behavior, clinical trials design and implementation, communication skills, new product development and management, international business and entrepreneurship, regulatory affairs and quality systems, strategic planning and business development, manufacturing , emotional and social intelligence skills, and professionalism and ethics.

That’s a lot to learn. Like medicine, it take a lifetime of continuous learning and practice, and you never get it completely right. However, as your attending used to tell you, by building on solid fundamentals and continuing to add to your experience and knowledge base, you should improve as long as you learn from your mistakes.

So where do you get this information without paying through the nose (remember, I’m an ENT doc)?
For some free resources to get you on your way, I’d suggest:

1. The Society of Physician Entrepreneurs Resource page
2. Bioentrepreneurship ezine
3. Biotechnology education resources
4. Multiple newsletters, blogs and information sites at the Biotechnology Industry Organizaton and the Medical Devices Manufacturers Association and the Advanced Medical Technology Association.
5. The FDA website

If you are serious about getting more bioentrepreneurship education, make a new year’s resolution to access these FREE sites on a regular basis. It will help you understanding the anatomy and physiology of bioentrepreneurship and equip you with the education you’ll need to start seeing businesses in the clinic. Now, outcomes are different story altogether.

Creating A Medical Application For The iPhone

Medical applications for the iPhone.

I recently received an email from a doctor in India who wanted some advice about a medical iPhone app he created. I encouraged him to post the idea on the linkedin site for the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs and harvest the "wisdom of the masses". Shortly thereafter, he posted a beta version of the app, a clinical simulation tool similar to case of the week, and asked users to provide feedback. A few weeks later, another email relayed that "My iPhone application has been a smashing success - I've had close upon 7000 downloads so far and it is the 7th most popular medical application in the United States". In addition, he was chosen to present his startup idea to the Mumbai Seedcamp at http://seedcamp.com/pages/mumbai10

Here's a useful article about how to get your iPhone app approved and how to make money from the idea. This is yet another example of the Long Tail theory and how you can benefit.

Dr. Arlen D. Meyers, Founder Of The Society Of Physician Entrepreneurs, Joins Freelance MD

Freelance MD today announced the addition of Dr. Arlen D. Meyers as a contributing physician writer.

Arlen D. Meyers, MD MBA is the cofounder, and Chief Medical Officer of MedVoy, a medical tourism company. He is also a Professor of Otolaryngology, Dentistry and Engineering at the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center. He teaches at the Bard Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado Denver and the Daniels School of Business at the University of Denver and is a consultant to several biotech, medical device and bioscience investment firms.

"We're very excited that Dr. Meyers has joined us," said Jeff Barson, Freelance MD's Founder. "Dr. Meyers background with technoloy and life-science startups gives him a unique understanding of many of the areas that physicians want and need more information."

Dr. Meyers is the author of over 300 articles and book chapters and is Editor-in Chief of eMedicine.com: Otolaryngology-Facial Plastic Surgery. He is the cofounder of two medical biophotonics companies and is a consultant to several other bioscience investment and medical device and biotech companies.

He presently serves on the Executive Committee of the University of Colorado Bioengineering Center and is a member of the executive committee of the Colorado Advanced Photonics Technology Center at the University of Colorado-Denver. He is Vice-President of the Biomedical Division of VentureQuest, a technology development consulting company, President and CEO of Oncolux, a biophotonics company, and former founder of Oncolight.Dr. Meyers was a member of the Colorado Governor's Commission on Science and Technology, a member of the Colorado Nanotechnology Task Force and was formerly the Executive Director of the Colorado Alliance for Bioengineering. In addition, he is cofounder and former director of the University of Colorado MD/MBA program and former director of the Bard Center Bioscience Entrepreneurship Program.

Dr. Meyers was named as a member of the Denver Business Journal’s 2004 Who’s Who in Healthcare and has received multiple awards for teaching, clinical care and research. He is on the Fulbright Senior Scholars Roster. Dr. Meyers serves on the editorial boards of The Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery, Biotechnology Healthcare, The Journal of Comparative Technology Transfer and Society and the Journal of Commercial Biotechnology.

About Arlen D. Meyers MD, MBA
Dr. Meyers received his B.S. degree from Dickinson College, his M. D. from Jefferson Medical College and did his residency in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the University of Pennsylvania. His received his MBA from the University of Colorado and is a former Harvard-Macy fellow.

About Freelance MD
Freelance MD is an active community that gives physicians around the world intelligent information to gain greater control of their medical practice, income, and lifestyle.