The Surgery Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Program (SIEDP): An Experiential Learning Program for Surgery Faculty to Ideate and Implement Innovations in Health care

Abstract

Objective: Surgeons are continually engaged in the incorporation of new technologies in their practice. In the operating room and beyond, they combine technical skill with creative problem solving to improve tools and techniques for patient care, making them natural innovators. However, despite their innovative tendencies, education on entrepreneurship and commercialization is severely lacking. Moreover, with increasing pressure to meet productivity metrics, their availability to learn the complexities of commercialization is limited. To address these challenges, we designed the Surgery Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Program (SIEDP) with the objective to advance faculty innovations, develop new departmental innovation initiatives, and improve faculty education in the area of innovation, entrepreneurship, and commercialization.

Design: The SIEDP is a first-of-its-kind experiential learning program specifically designed for busy clinical and research faculty in a major academic surgery department. Participants ideated and formed teams around health care innovations as they progressed through a 9-month curriculum of expert guest lectures and interactive workshops. A postprogram evaluation and outcome tracking method was used to evaluate attainment of educational objectives and project development milestones.

Setting: The Department of Surgery, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Participants: Eleven surgery faculty of varying academic rank and surgical subspecialties.

Results: The program generated 2 faculty startup companies, 1 departmental commercial product, 3 patent disclosures, and 3 innovations that received additional funding. All participants in the program reported a significant increase in their understanding of innovation and entrepreneurship and that participation was a worthwhile faculty development activity.

Conclusion: Despite the various challenges and time constraints of surgical practices, programs like SIEDP can educate surgeons and other academicians on innovation, entrepreneurship, and commercialization and add value to the academic mission of providing excellent education, research, and clinical care.

Keywords: Interpersonal and Communication Skills; Patient Care; Systems-Based Practice; commercialization; entrepreneurship; faculty development; innovation.