A Piece Of My Mind: Research & Development

I have been doing clinical research for about 10 years now and I think it's a lot of fun and as Leo Rigler puts it in his article, A Half Century of Radiology, it's exciting to see your name published. But, is there something more we can do other than publish? How do have the greatest impact on our society? Is there an effective strategy or path for radiologists and the like to make significantly more positive change? It's possible my colleagues in Engineering and Computer Science have already answered these questions sometime ago. But, I have been thinking more and more about medical doctors participating in research and development. I think my background in clinical research sets a great foundation to start on this path; moreover, I can offer clinical insights for my engineering

In fact, I found out recently from my colleague, +Nita Nayak, that UCLA offers a MedTech Innovation Program for physicians to do exactly this: to work in a collaborative team to develop and innovate medical devices (this is another reason why I love UCLA). Over a course of two quarters, the student learns about technological development and then, work with a multi-disciplinary team of engineers, design artists, physicians, etc to create a product. Once the product is developed, the program will help fund and file a patent. This whole process can take less than a year (compared to my clinical research project which averages closer to 4 years (range of 2-5 years)!

I don't have answers to my questions yet but I think others (including UCLA Business of Science Center) are ahead of me in trying to address this question by offering programs to facilitate physicians to participate in technological innovations. I'm looking forward to this.