From tympanostomy tubes to balloon sinuplasty to olfactory training, new medical procedures and devices used in an otolaryngology practice are often created and developed by otolaryngologists themselves.
Explore This Issue
May 2023How do these doctors-turned-inventors take an idea that may have occurred to them in the shower and turn it into something that improves or even saves lives? Often, the answer is an academic incubator.
“Academic incubators provide dedicated space and resources for emerging innovators and entrepreneurs to develop novel biomedical technologies, such as surgical devices and medical therapeutics,” said Elliott D. Kozin, MD, an assistant professor of otolaryngology–head and neck surgery at Mass Eye and Ear and The Harvard Program in Speech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology, both in Boston. Dr. Kozin has active research underway in the development of novel biomedical devices for the treatment of hearing loss and associated otologic disorders. He added that incubators often have a host of resources available, such as temporary laboratory space, funding mechanisms, intellectual property support, FDA regulatory device experts, and business mentors.
Unless the inventing physician is also an experienced venture capitalist, the advantages these incubators provide can mean the difference between a new technology coming into existence or not. And it can take a good deal of highly detailed advice and practical support to nurture an innovation, depending on its stage of development.
As Dr. Kozin and his colleagues worked to develop novel tympanic membrane grafts, he said, they used academic incubator resources to provide support on regulatory pathways, market analyses, and funding mechanisms. Expert staff members of the academic incubator also assisted in finding potential commercial partners.
There is a downside to working with academic incubators, which is that they take a cut. “The tradeoff is that when you’re in an academic institution, they own your intellectual property and you have a pre-existing revenue sharing agreement with them,” said otolaryngologist and inventor Subinoy Das, MD, chief executive officer and medical director for the U.S. Institute for Advanced Sinus Care & Research, Columbus, Ohio. “Theoretically, if you could fund all of the initial startup costs yourself and own the idea completely, the potential ceiling of your revenue actualization would be much higher.” Dr. Das acknowledges, however, that when you work with an academic institution, they often provide many of the resources necessary to develop the invention. And if the invention doesn’t amount to anything commercially viable, they also take the hit for the costs involved.