Surgical Research and Technology Assessment

The Surgical Research Laboratory of the Department of Surgery has a 20-year history in the area of Technology Assessment and Development. Although the goals, skills, projects and relationships have evolved over time, there is a trend towards continued growth and expertise in thee area of commercialization.

Assets

The program's assets are both physical and human. The physical assets on Ziskind 2 and 3 include core facility, laboratory, administrative, conference and storage. The core facilities consist of the large animal operating center administered by Surgical Research Laboratory staff and accessible to all departments and divisions in the hospital and medical school. In addition, there is a nuclear and fluoroscopic imaging lab that has been maintained by the Surgical Research Laboratory and the Division of Cardiology. Also, there is an audiovisual production lab.

The human assets consist of the professional, administrative and technical staff that have dozens of years of combined experience in the areas of idea development, preclinical device/technology evaluation, preclinical trial execution, FDA preparation, clinical trial design, clinical trial execution, capital acquisition and commercialization. Members of the professional staff hold a number of patents.

Program

The Technical Assessment and Development program is broad based and centered on technology development ranging from seminal idea development thru clinical trial and commercialization. It is a multiphase program that involves technology assessment, clinical trials and preclinical trial work, technology education and training and intellectural property development.

The infrastructure currently exists for all aspects of this program with the exception of the intellectual property development, yet extensive expertise in this arena currently does exist, andis the basis for the program expansion.