Translation to success of surgical innovation.
Contemporary thoracic and cardiovascular surgery uses extensive equipment and devices to enable its performance. As the specialties develop and new frontiers are crossed, the technology needs to advance in a parallel fashion. Strokes of genius or problem-solving brain-storming may generate great ideas, but the metamorphosis of an idea into a physical functioning tool requires a lot more than just a thinking process. A modern surgical device is the end-point of a sophisticated, complicated and potentially treacherous route, which incorporates new skills and knowledge acquisition. Processes including technology transfer, commercialisation, corporate and product development, intellectual property and regulatory routes all play pivotal roles in this voyage. Many good ideas may fall by the wayside for a multitude of reasons as they may not be marketable or may be badly marketed. In this article, we attempt to illuminate the components required in the process of surgical innovation, which we believe must remain in the remit of the modern-day thoracic and cardiovascular surgeon.
Department of Biosurgery, Surgical Technology and Surgical Epidemiology Unit, Imperial College London, 10th Floor QEQM Building, St Mary's Hospital, London W2 1NY, UK.
Joshua A
JA
Vecht
Ludwig Karl
LK
von Segesser
Hutan
H
Ashrafian
Christopher
C
Rao
Petros
P
Skapinakis
Srdjan
S
Saso
Ara
A
Darzi
Thanos
T
Athanasiou
D005378:Financial Support; D019981:Health Care Sector; D006801:Humans; D018973:Intellectual Property; D010330:Patents as Topic; D013673:Technology Assessment, Biomedical / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D018581:Technology Transfer; D019616:Thoracic Surgical Procedures / Q000295:instrumentation*; D057170:Translational Research, Biomedical / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods