|
|
 |
 | ||
Home
News Room
News Releases
Children's Hospital Boston Joins the Center for the Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology
|
|
| ||
|
|
|
|
|
December 5, 2003
|
|
|
For Further Information:
Philip Kong, JD, MBA
Intellectual Property Office
Children's Hospital Boston
617-355-2835
|
|
|
|
|
|
Boston institutions collaborate to further the development of new research, technology, products and inter-institutional issues
|
|
|
|
On Nov. 4, 2003, Children's Hospital Boston joined the Center for the Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technologies (CIMIT), a collaboration of multiple Boston-based institutions that provides a means for collaborations of inter-institutional talent. CIMIT not only brings together members of different institutions, but also provides additional resources on many levels of funding for its different partners. Children's Hospital Boston brings a pediatric focus to the various inter-institutional and inter-disciplinary initiatives that CIMIT supports.
Children's Hospital Boston's 'Pediatric Product Development Initiative' (PPDI) is one of the main programs that will link Children's Hospital to CIMIT. Under the directorship of Philip Kong, JD, MBA and Licensing Manager in the Intellectual Property Office at Children's Hospital Boston, the PPDI aims to increase the number of pediatric medical devices that are brought to the market each year by taking a novel approach to the development and commercialization of such products. The PPDI currently has one product in development, a therapeutic device intended to reduce the occurrence of advanced Positional Plagiocephaly, also known as Flathead Syndrome. While the preliminary development of this device is being financed by a gift from Eric Kobren, a Children's Hospital Boston Trustee, Kong hopes that CIMIT will give Children¹s Hospital the ability to increase its productivity in the development and commercialization of similar products.
|
|
|
|
Together, Kong and Dr. Don Ingber, Children's Director of Surgical Research, will act as the Children's Hospital 'site miners' for CIMIT, looking for novel products, ideas or technologies that may be brought to CIMIT for further development. Through avenues such as Children's newly founded Product Imagination Forum, Kong hopes to uncover areas within the institution where new innovations could help caregivers better the lives of patients. These 'Product Imagination Forums' allow patient care personnel from all areas of the institution to brainstorm innovative product ideas based on the needs of the hospital. Last December, the first forum on patient safety was held and allowed patient care givers to discuss areas where patient safety could be improved and what types of products would facilitate such a change. Additional forums have targeted the topics of oxygen saturation monitoring and patient identification.
Children's Hospital Boston had discussed joining CIMIT for a number of years, but was concerned whether the collaboration could sustain a pediatric focus given the fact that Children's Hospital conducts substantial non-pediatric research as well. With the development of the new Pediatric Product Development Initiative, Children's Hospital Boston hopes to firmly link with CIMIT and further its relationships with the partnering institutions, including Massachusetts General Hospital, Partners HealthCare System, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Brigham and Women's Hospital, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Draper Laboratories. Through these relationships, the partnering institutions will be able to combine skills in engineering, medicine, research, and other disciplines to capitalize on the different specialties that each institution brings to CIMIT.
|
|
|
|
Children's Hospital Boston believes that through this new partnership, it will be able to further the development of pediatric products, research and technology in the medical field. 'By combining the talent among all of these institutions, we can expect that the incredible work coming from Children's Hospital Boston will increase in the years to come and will positively impact pediatric care,' said Kong. 'Children's Hospital Boston has been home to many first-of-a-kind developments in its history. The Pediatric Product Development Initiative is one of these advances and the partnership with CIMIT should not only lead to more innovation, but also to the tangible development of that innovation in the near future.'
|
|
|
|
Children's Hospital Boston is home to the world's largest research enterprise based at a pediatric medical center, where its discoveries have benefited both children and adults for more than 130 years. More than 500 scientists, including seven members of the National Academy of Sciences, nine members of the Institute of Medicine and nine members of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute comprise Children's research community. Founded in 1869 as a 20-bed hospital for children, Children's Hospital Boston today is a 300-bed comprehensive center for pediatric and adolescent health care grou'ded in the values of excellence in patient care and sensitivity to the complex needs and diversity of children and families. It is also the primary pediatric teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School. For more information about the hospital visit: www.childrenshospital.org.
|
|
|
|
|
|
