Medical Innovation

Medical Innovation (HEMA-915 & HEMA-916) is a revolutionary academic partnership that draws upon the strengths of Northwestern University’s interdisciplinary excellence. By combining industry leaders with top faculty and students from among Northwestern’s highly ranked schools, the course establishes a new standard for fostering innovation within a university setting. This unique two-quarter course, which was offered for the first time in fall 2007 with 80 students, focuses on the tools and techniques needed to create innovations for the biomedical industry. The students experience the entire innovation life cycle from ideation to prototyping, legal protection, market sizing and business plan development.

The students are guided by the steering committee comprised of faculty directors William Sutter (Kellogg), Mike Marasco (McCormick School of Engineering), Patrick McCarthy (Feinberg School of Medicine), and Clinton Francis (NU School of Law). Teams comprising of students from each of the four schools shadow surgeons from Evanston Northwestern Healthcare and the Feinberg School and observe them both in clinical settings, as well as for brainstorming sessions where they work to come up with a prototype that will have an impact on future surgeries. By the end of the second quarter, an actual product is generated by the students along with a presentation to potential investors. Each team is given funding to develop prototypes.  

The course has an advisory board composed of an impressive group of senior executives from companies such as Baxter International Inc., Edwards Lifesciences, Coviden, Boston Scientific, Medtronic and Abbott, as well as venture capital firms such as Enterprise Partners, Longitude Capital, and Morgan Stanley. The board serves the dual purpose of being mentors for the steering committee as well as help in assessing the technologies being developed.

HEMA 915-916 is a non-bidding course; permission from the Faculty Advisor is required before registration.  Students should submit their Application form and resume via e-mail to William Sutter at least two weeks prior to the first class.