‘Can’t believe we won! (The AGA Shark Tank)’: Building sustainable careers in clinical and translational GI research
What are important factors for success in the innovation industry?
The first step is having the personal drive and vision toward an innovation. As clinicians and scientists our patients, families, and life experiences give us the drive on a daily basis as we strive to improve patient outcomes through more efficient, patient centered, less costly methods. The next step is having the training to know how to innovate. Dr. Henderson was part of a cohort trained in clinical and translational team science.1 Dr. Kim left the NIH to join his first startup company called Dxterity Diagnostics to learn product development and commercialization firsthand before starting GoDx.
A purposeful long-term commitment to innovation is the cornerstone of success in the implementation science space.2,3 Finding other innovators in your scientific space with similar values and dedication is priceless. An important aspect for someone with an innovative idea for a product is to talk to a patent lawyer or a licensing officer at the technology transfer office to discuss filing a patent. Next steps would be to find or form a company to license the technology, and develop and commercialize the product.
What are the biggest challenges to getting a new product on the market?
One of the biggest challenges for getting a new product to the market is building something that people want to buy. “Technology is the easy part” is a common mantra among bioentrepreneurs. Another mantra is “The market kills innovation.” To address this, GoDx applied for and was awarded a grant supplement to their NCATS Phase 1 SBIR grantto participate in the NIH Innovation Corps (I-Corps) program. As part of the I-Corps program GoDX conducted more than 100 interviews with potential customers and stakeholders for our product. This allowed GoDx to focus their business canvas (an evolving sketch of a business plan) and make key pivots in their customer segments and our technology in order to better achieve a “product-market” fit. While GoDx had thought of the idea from reading journals, when they met real customers and potential strategic partners, GoDx gained a real understanding of who the customers would be and the unmet needs they have. Through the coaching in this I-Corps course and the interviews, GoDx was able to develop a realistic go-to-market strategy. We highly recommend physician entrepreneurs to take part in I-Corps or other Lean Startup courses.
We are so thankful that our innovation was selected as the AGA Shark Tank winner! It garnered us lot of publicity and interest from potential investors and accelerators, and we highly recommend the AGA Tech Summit to all AGA members and GI health professionals who are interested in innovation in the GI space.4 The AGA Tech Summit is an excellent meeting that covers significant practical aspects of innovating technologies in health care including raising capital, patents, commercialization, regulatory approvals, reimbursement, and adoption. The AGA Center for GI Innovation and Technology is an excellent support group that can provide guidance on the different aspects of innovation and commercialization. See you in San Francisco at the 2019 AGA Tech Summit, April 10-12!
Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R44TR001912 and the National Institute of Nursing Research of the National Institutes of Health Intramural Research Program. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
