November 2013 NUI Galway Hosts First European meeting of Biomedical Engineering Innovation Design and Entrepreneurship Alliance

The strong medical device cluster and close links with Stanford Biodesign programme led to NUI Galway being chosen

NUI Galway, in conjunction with Stanford Biodesign, recently hosted the first ever Biomedical Engineering Innovation, Design and Entrepreneurship Alliance (BME-IDEA) International Workshop to be held in Europe.

BioInnovate Ireland Director, co-founder and lecturer in Biomedical Engineering Dr Mark Bruzzi says “The (BME-IDEA) represents 95 participating institutions in North America, and since2000, BME-IDEA has held one-day working meetings to share innovation, design, technology transfer and entrepreneurship “best practices” from different university programs with the community. As IDEA programs develop beyond the US, particularly in Europe, it seemed timely to convene a day-long planning workshop to extend the BME-IDEA internationally.”

Galway’s strong medical device cluster, the location of BioInnovate Ireland, the national medical device innovation training programme and close links with the Stanford Biodesign programme led to NUIGalway being chosen as the first host location in Europe.

The meeting, held during the summer, was attended by over 30 delegates from 15 different BioInnovate/Biodesign style university programmes from across Europe and the US, including, Stanford, Northwestern and John’s Hopkins Universities, the Imperial College London, IHU Strasbourg, Aarhaus University Denmark and the Centre for Technology in Medicine and Health (CTMH), Sweden.

The meeting served as a forum for the programme representatives to share experiences and perspectives on a variety of topics including programme design, delivery, funding and outcomes. Each of the programmes in attendance applies a similar process to foster innovation in medical technology design, with a focus on developing new medical technologies, and a new generation of entrepreneurs with a focus on improving healthcare and patient outcomes.

Director of the Stanford Biodesign programme, Dr Paul Yock, said “such a forum is an excellent opportunity to share experiences and learning across the European and US programmes, and will facilitate further development of a global network of people and programmes interested in medical device related innovation/entrepreneurship education.”

The meeting has resulted in enhanced collaboration between European programmes, particularly with the more established programmes such as CTMH and BioInnovate aiding the development of newer programmes, and an annual BME-IDEA Europe Meeting. Further information about BME-IDEA and medical technology innovation programmes can be obtained by contacting BioInnovate Ireland at info@nuigalway.ie or by calling us at 091 494212.

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