Surgical Innovations Accelerator

Surgical Innovations Accelerator process in a diagram

The Surgical Innovations Accelerator works to provide seed funding, engineering support, and personalized consultation and advising in order to develop and assist in the development of medical device ideas from the University of California San Francisco faculty through the product development process towards market availability and patient benefit. The accelerator program, and associated awards, are supported by a dedicated network of consultants from academia, industry, and venture capital. The sizes of awards vary based on project needs and availability of funds. The accelerator holds meetings twice a year, in which eligible applicants and projects are invited to participate.

In order to be eligible for the Surgical Innovation Accelerator, applicants are required to be a UCSF faculty member with a medical device idea or project that is considered to met a compelling unmet clinical need with a scientific of technical and developmental feasibility. Applicants also need to be willing to make the time to work with the Surgical Innovations Program and its Innovation Advisory Board to develop the idea into a marketable product. For non-faculty members, applicants may apply with the support or sponsorship of a faculty member.

The projects and the medical devices proposed can be at any stage of development that could benefit from seed funding and specialized advising services. The therapeutic area can cover any surgical or medical problem where an improvement over current treatments could be welcome. The accelerator program sustains itself on equity and licensing income resulting from the work funded by the program.

The Surgical Innovations' Accelerator program has offered seed funding to projects, including:

• Tabla, which works to provide a rapid acoustic method of diagnosing treatment
• Glacier Medical, which is working to develop a more efficient prototype for gallbladder cryoablation
• ReValve Med, developing a valve retriever system for Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement devices
• Percutaneous AV Fistula, which is developing a minimally invasive, percutaneous method of creating arteriovenous fistula for hemodialysis patients
• Tracheostomy Alarm, developing a wireless alarm to sense accidental decanulation in tracheostomy tubes
• Augmented Surgical Vision, which is developing a surgical LED array for optimal surgical lighting based on procedure